Rafael Fernandez-Sein (Retired, Summer 2005)
Ex-Director
Tropical Center for Earth and Space Studies
What is your birth date?
August 27, 1941
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. Rio Piedras was absorbed by San Juan in 1952 and no longer is an independent municipality.
What was your favorite subject in school?
Would you believe history?
Did you have a favorite teacher?
In high school I had a Jesuit seminarian that taught me history and to look into the root causes of human events.
What do you do?
I work at the University of Puerto Rico. Some of the time, I teach classes about electronics to college students. The rest of the time, I work in the Space Information Lab. At the lab, we build satellite tracking stations. A tracking station keeps track of a satellite. It also collects information from a satellite.
The main way to get information from a satellite is with a special antenna. One of the antennas we built at the lab gets information from a satellite called SeaWiFs. This satellite is looking at the color of the ocean from space.
The pictures that it sends back will help our marine scientists because it tells them how much phytoplankton earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Phytoplankton is in the sea. Phytoplankton is a tiny marine microorganism that small fish feed upon. Then, larger fish feed on the smaller fish.
We recently put up another antenna, which is going to be used to track RADARSAT, a Canadian satellite. The information we get from RADARSAT will help scientists learn things about the surface of the Earth, like the exact location of the faults (cracks) on the surface of the Earth, or the level at which flooding might be expected.
When I was your age...
I was interested in electrical things at a very early age. Here, in Puerto Rico, we get presents for Christmas AND for Three Kings Day, a holiday on January 6th. Would you believe what I got for one Three Kings Day? Batteries, wires, switches, and porcelain lamp holders with light bulbs! I had a lot of fun wiring them up to work as lights. I did not get an electric train but a friend did, so I spent quite a bit of time at his house.
When I got older...
When I turned eleven, I started putting together radios. At fourteen, I built my own radio station. The antenna for the station was two wire squares built with parts of my sister’s swing set. At that time, I had my Novice license, which means you get to talk with other radio amateurs throughout the world using Morse code. I went to the University of Illinois for electrical engineering.
Now, I have a really cool job...
Our lab collects a lot of different information about the planet Earth. Our latest tracking station will be used to receive LANDSAT 7 landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov data. The LANDSAT 7 was launched in 1999. Its main purpose is to make a map of the surface of the Earth. Since the data is taken every day, it will help scientists study the changes on the surface of the Earth and also keep track of deforestation in South America.
What are your hobbies?
Reading (historical novels) and radio
Who is your hero?
My father, who instilled in me a sense of duty and a love of science