JANUS Team Member Paul Van Rompay Celebrates 15 Years

01/31/2025

Paul Van Rompay, Ph.D. is celebrating his 15th anniversary in January. Paul currently serves JANUS as principal engineer, group manager, and AER Ground Systems and Missions Operations-3 (GSMO-3) chief software engineer.

Paul first joined AER, which recently was acquired by JANUS Research Group (JANUS), as a software engineer, working on the AER Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES)-R Series. He worked on that team developing weather algorithms and that evolved into him becoming team lead for multiple algorithms, then deputy chief software engineer for the AER (GOES)-R Series effort. After development and integration were complete, Paul has continued as a subject matter expert on (GOES)-R algorithms with the NOAA Product Readiness & Operations Team.

JANUS Team Member Paul Van Rompay -1 | JANUS Research Group

During his tenure with AER and now JANUS, Paul has made significant contributions to the latest generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), which is the nation's most advanced fleet of geostationary weather satellites. These satellites circle the Earth in geosynchronous orbit, allowing them to stay in a fixed position in the sky, remaining stationary with respect to a point on the ground. Paul works as part of a team that provides services including systems engineering, facility engineering, launch and early orbit support, flight operations, flight dynamics support, and sustaining engineering for NASA. In 2016, Paul traveled to Cape Canaveral for the launch of the first satellite in the GOES-R series. While winds delayed the launch until the end of the two-hour window, Paul recalls it being a nerve-wracking but beautiful nighttime launch, celebrated with colleagues and family members across the program.

Paul has earned several awards and recognition over his 15-year career with JANUS/AER, including FY11 AER Employee of the Year, FY17 Q4 GOES-R Outstanding Team, FY19 Q2 GOES-R Outstanding Team, 2020 NOAA Bronze Medal member of the GOES-R PRO PASS Team for NESDIS Scientific/Engineering Achievement, and the FY23 GOES-R Process Improvement Award. These awards highlight Paul's meticulous attention to detail, which is an essential contribution to the large-scale software development, documentation, and requirements tracking needed on the GOES-R and GSMO projects. Additionally, Paul has developed software tools that created an automated and consistent method for installing and documenting algorithm updates, along with tools for version control and configuration management.

JANUS Team Member Paul Van Rompay -2 | JANUS Research Group

Prior to beginning his career, Paul's work on his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Michigan afforded him the opportunity to work with the future 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, Gérard Mourou, who won the prize for inventing the technique to create ultrashort pulses of laser light. The lessons he learned during this time have served him well throughout his career.

Paul's motivation to make important contributions to weather remote sensing and forecasting contributes to his reputation as a valued leader, collaborator, and colleague. He consistently makes a positive impact within the company and with our customers. His subject matter expertise and innovative problem solving continue to advance science and technology methods and results. JANUS looks forward to the continued contributions Paul will make as a valued member of our team.

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