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Woody Turner is the Program Scientist for Biological Diversity and Program Manager for Ecological Forecasting in the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate. As program scientist, he oversees the agency's basic research efforts to use satellite-derived information to understand the relationship of biodiversity to climate, landscape change, and ecosystem function. The NASA Ecological Forecasting Program is an applications activity seeking to bring together satellite observations and ecological models to support decision making for conservation biology and sustainable regional development. Born in Nashville, TN, Woody graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1982 and earned master's degrees in public affairs from Princeton University in 1987 and in conservation biology from the University of Maryland in 2001. He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with his wife Jennifer and their two children.

Read the NASA education feature about Woody Turner and the Hunt for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.