Michelle Stephens Receives 2024 Arthur S. Flemming Award

Michelle Stephens is being recognized in the Leadership-Management category for advancing the accurate measurement of infrared and optical radiation required for defense, climate, and fundamental science, such as determining the output of high-power lasers, accurately measuring the Earth’s radiation budget from space, and detecting and counting single photons of light. Stephens' team developed space-based radiometers to accurately measure essential climate variables. In a matter of years, her team provided CubeSat instruments that are ten times more sensitive and one-tenth the cost of legacy instruments. 

Her leadership in this technology is critical to the NASA Libera program, which will ensure the accuracy and continuity of key environmental variables for modeling and predicting Earth’s climate trends. Her leadership is also central to programs in fundamental science seeking more sensitive and accurate measurements of gravitational waves. 

Dr. Stephens additionally leads the creation of the world’s first measurement service to calibrate detector efficiency at the faintest light levels ⎯ single photons of critical importance to the nascent quantum industry.