The Department of Geographical Sciences is proud to announce that Dr. Eric Vermote has been awarded the status of Research Professor Emeritus by the Provost's office and President Loh as of December 1, 2019. He is the first Research Professor in our department to be given the Emeritus honor and we extend our congratulations for this well-earned title. The word Emeritus after an academic title designates a faculty member who has retired from full-time employment at the University of Maryland, College Park after meritorious service to the University in the areas of teaching, research, and/or service. Dr. Vermote is continuing collaboration with Geographical Sciences and advising our PhD students. Held to high standards and highly esteemed by his colleagues, Dr. Vermote has enriched our community since 1991 as an exemplary scholar and teacher.

Dr. Vermote received his Ph.D in 1990 in Atmospheric Optics from the University of Lille, France. He is currently a Research Physical Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory and his research interests are in radiative transfer modeling, vicarious calibration, atmospheric correction, aerosol retrieval, and the generation of climate data record for terrestrial studies. Dr. Vermote is also a member of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Science Team, the NASA National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project Science Team for the VIIRS instrument, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission Science Team, and is responsible for the atmospheric correction over land surfaces in the visible-to-middle infrared.