Following studies in astrophysics at Harvard and Princeton Universities, Charles Kennel became an Associate Administrator of NASA for Earth Sciences and chaired the Department of Physics at the University of California, becoming Executive Vice Chancellor of that department. Kennel was then director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Vice-chancellor of Marine Sciences at the University of California in San Diego from 1998 to 2006. He is currently an Emeritus Professor at Scripps, an emeritus member of Christ’s College at Cambridge University, and Chairman of the Space Studies Board of the US National Academy of Sciences. Kennel is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the International Astronautical Federation. Charles Kennel was a former Associate Administrator of NASA. He was the director of Mission to Planet Earth, a program to perform a comprehensive survey and observation of our home planet.