Honorary Member, Romanian Academy of Sciences(2000), Rustum Roy Award, Chopra Foundation (2011), IEEE Orange County Chapter, Outstanding Leadership and Professional Service Award (2011)
Chapman University, Center of Excellence in Earth Systems Modeling and Observations (CEESMO)
Menas C. Kafatos (Greek: Μηνάς Καφάτος; born 25 March 1945) is a Greek-born American physicist and a writer on spirituality and science. His publications include: The Nonlocal Universe and The Conscious Universe. Kafatos has written and lectured extensively promoting discourse between science, spirituality, and religion. He has held numerous positions at institutions including Chapman University, George Mason University, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Career
Kafatos received his B.A. in physics from Cornell University in 1967 and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1972.[1] After postdoctoral work at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, he joined George Mason University and was University Professor of Interdisciplinary Sciences from 1984-2008, where he also served as dean of the School of Computational Sciences and director of the Center for Earth Observing and Space Research.[1] He and a team of computational scientists joined Chapman University in the fall of 2008, where he was the Founding Dean of the Schmid College of Science and Technology serving as dean from 2009 – 2012.[1] He currently is the director of the Center of Excellence in Earth Systems Modeling and Observations (CEESMO).
Notable scientific contributions include enhancements to synthetic tropical cyclone (hurricane) circulations used in forecast models,[6] new perspectives on the self organization of the universe through the lens of complexity,[7][8] a detailed look at the relationship between vegetation in the United States and El Niño/Southern Oscillation,[9] and a better understanding of dust and aerosols over India.[10][11]
^El-Askary, Hesham; Gautam, R.; Singh, R.P.; Kafatos, M. (2006). "Dust storms detection over the Indo-Gangetic basin using multi sensor data". Advances in Space Research. 37 (4): 728–733. Bibcode:2006AdSpR..37..728E. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2005.03.134.