Jacob Reed joined Telophase 6 years ago and has worked on the SESDA contract as a Web Developer for NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission ever since (https://pmm.nasa.gov). His key responsibilities include designing, building, and maintaining GPM’s websites, keeping them updated with content, and managing GPM’s social media accounts.
Jacob has also been involved in many side projects for GPM over the years. In 2013 he helped organize an art competition for students to develop anime characters to represent GPM. Later, Jacob worked with the GPM education team to develop a comic book based on the winning characters, and he assisted with graphic design for the book. This project was designed to get students interested and excited about the GPM mission and Earth Science (https://pmm.nasa.gov/education/comics).
Jacob also assists GPM’s public outreach by helping with various NASA outreach events throughout the year. Each December Jacob attends the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA, where he runs the GPM exhibit booth to spread the word about GPM and how scientists can use its data in their research.
In June of 2016, Jacob helped plan and run the first ever GPM Facebook Live event. It was a half hour show featuring a tour of the GPM mission control room and answering live user questions from Facebook. The event was a success with 110,351 total views, 5,447 peak live viewers and over 3,800 comments. It was followed up by an even more successful Facebook Live event covering Hurricane Matthew in early October 2016.
Another major project that Jacob worked on was the GPM Touchscreen Kiosk, an interactive touchscreen app for displaying GPM videos and data. This project can be viewed on display outside the GPM Mission Operations center in Building 32 at NASA Goddard. He later adapted the app to run on iPads so it could be taken to various GPM outreach events.
Jacob is currently developing a public website for the NASA Applied Sciences Disasters team to collate datasets and resources from across centers to aid responders when a major disaster occurs.
Jacob Reed has won several awards over his 6 years at NASA. In 2016, he received the Code 612 Contractor Award for his exceptional web development and social media efforts for the TRMM and GPM webpages. He also received the C.R.E.W. Award (customer recognition) award in June 2016. In 2014, he won the SESDA III “Team Player” award and the Robert H. Goddard “Exceptional Achievement Award for Outreach” (group award with GPM EPO team). In 2012, he won the Contractor Peer Award for “Outstanding Performance – Education and Public Outreach.”
Jacob has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a minor in Studio Art. The field of web development appeals to him as it allows him to combine programming with creativity and graphic design. He greatly enjoys his position at NASA as he has the opportunity to work with a wide variety of different projects and technologies, while at the same time helping the world by educating the public about Earth Science and providing them with critical resources for disaster response.
In his free time Jacob enjoys electronic music production, running, yoga, and listening to comedy and science podcasts. He lives in Old Greenbelt and has been married to his wife, Aimee, for four years.
