Forest Watch science and education strive to halt climate change

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Portrait Dr. Barrett N. ‰ÛÏBarry‰Û RockAs the international remote sensing community readies the 2009 IGARSS in Cape Town, South Africa this July, Earthzine recalls last summer’s conference in Boston, Massachusetts with this Featured Person interview with Dr. Barrett N. “Barry” Rock, professor of forestry, botany and remote sensing in the Complex Systems Research Center and the Department of Natural Resources at the University of New Hampshire. Barry Rock exemplifies IEEE’s mission to put science and technology to work for the benefit of humanity and Earth. He has “grown” a network of hundreds of students and teachers in Forest Watch, the outreach program he founded in 1991 in order to scientifically track the effects of U.S. efforts to diminish the damage of air pollution on human health and vegetation. In Boston, he demonstrated the Forest Watch model of university/K-12 partnership and IEEE scientific/community outreach at the 2008 IEEE International Geosciences and Remote Sensing Symposium.