Waleed Abdalati

An emerging field of importance he sees is “straddling the fence” between economics and scientific actions. Policy makers, whom Abdalati has addressed numerously, for better or worse, view everything through “the lens of their constituency.” The answer, he says, is better cost benefit analysis.
“It takes looking at all dimensions… A more scientifically informed body politic; and more politically and economically conscious scientists.”

Before taking the director’s chair at CIRES, he was NASA’s chief scientist—an opportunity that leant to firsthand viewings of “triumphant moments.” One was the 2012 Mars landing of Curiosity. The time from when the rover enters Martian atmosphere to landing is called the “Seven Minutes of Terror.” Rather than watch an animated simulation, Abdalati enjoyed a screen with a graph depicting the craft’s realtime Doppler shift. “It would pulse, like every second, and you’d get a new point on the graph…then it hit zero,” he shakes his head. “It was beautiful.”

As a child, he and a friend would pretend going on launches to the moon, using a wooden shed as a rocket, “banging on the sides like it was taking off.” They’d step out of it as though they’d arrive, slowly striding in faux gravity one-fourth that of Earth’s. “I had this fascination with space, an aptitude for math and science.” And at a young age, he says, realized the importance of a job.

“I used to love hockey. The grace, the energy…but as you get older, those things tend to take a backseat.” At 12, Abdalati’s father died weeks before hockey registration. “I just knew that the person who made the family’s money was gone… So, I told my mom I didn’t want to play hockey anymore… It broke my heart.” But then in graduate school, a friend threw together a C-league. “Oh, we sucked,” he laughs. “But it was like heaven for me.”

His CIRES office is located on a quiet part of CU’s campus waiting for a new semester. And Abdalati is excited. “The opportunity to lead CIRES is a privilege… Understanding the human relationship with the environment is one of the most important professional endeavors we could have.” For him, the goal is to empower these people, whatever their “planned trajectory” might be.