(Left to right): Dr. David Jackson, Dr. Gail Skofronick-Jackson, Dr. and Mrs. James Skofronick in a family photo. (Courtesy Skofronick family)
Dr. Gail Skofronick-Jackson liked to think of herself as a falling snow detective. The NASA scientist found joy in watching the snowflakes dance to the ground and described a sense of delight when they presented themselves with their beautiful symmetry and fractal nature.
Sadly, she passed away unexpectedly in early September 2021. Dr. Skofronick-Jackson was deployed with a NASA science team in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands and perished in a tragic accident while hiking with colleagues. In honor of her memory, her family set up a scholarship fund for women pursuing electrical engineering undergraduate degrees at her alma mater, Florida State University.
“In an instant, Gail’s earthly life ended. We wanted some of the scientific contributions our daughter has made to the science of weather forecasting and improvement of life to continue,” Dr. James and Dot Skofronick said. “We want the memorial scholarship to include undergraduate women engineering students at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and other STEM women students as well.”
As a NASA precipitation project scientist, Dr. Skofronick-Jackson’s role was to take satellite measurements to interpret what is falling in terms of snow at the surface. Like a gumshoe detective, she analyzed clues about what the satellite was seeing. She wanted to know what was between the satellite and the earth.
“Gail’s work in Global Precipitation Measurement expanded projections of weather information for our planet,” Dr. James Skofronick said. “The knowledge is available to all persons living on planet earth and will continue as long as the satellite continues to be serviced. Gail should be honored for this major contribution to the science of weather forecasting and improvement of life of people on earth from the satellite information.”
Dr. Skofronick-Jackson graduated in 1986 from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. She received her master’s and doctorate from Georgia Institute of Technology and began a successful career at NASA, where she was a dynamic leader of NASA’s Weather Program and a Scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission.
Dr. Skofronick-Jackson and her husband, Dr. David Jackson studied under the same advisor while pursuing their doctorate degrees at Georgia Tech and shared a passion for applying their research toward solving environmental science challenges.
“We were colleagues, who later became life partners, sharing a common motivation and passion for conducting research to help solve some of the challenges in ocean and atmospheric science,” Jackson said.
In 2014, Dr. Skofronick-Jackson received the FSU Grad Made Good Award, and in 2015, she was the FSU Summer Commencement speaker. Rather than giving graduates a lecture on rain and the water cycle she offered four guiding principles of life, reminding us all of how our lives are interconnected.
As an engineer, she used her expertise to look at science from a modeling point of view. This skill helped with her work at the space agency to collect global precipitation data using orbiting satellites. She was a highly accomplished and well-regarded scientist for retrievals of ice particles in clouds.
Skofronick-Jackson provided a critical link between project engineers, mission operations, and the scientists using data. She is survived by her husband Dr. David Jackson, their children, Marina and Matthew, her parents, Dr. James and Dot Skofronick, and her siblings, Greg, Gary and Gretchen, and many friends and extended family members.
She was an active member of the American Meteorological Society, and the American Geophysical Union, and a Fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS), Dr. Skofronick-Jackson served as an Associate Editor and a member of the Administrative Committee.
Dr. Skofronick-Jackson championed the IEEE Women in Engineering network within GRSS and helped create the GRSS’s Women Mentoring Women initiative.
“Penny Young, a dear friend of our family, captured the instance the universe expanded to welcome its newest star,” Dr. James and Dot Skofronick said. “In a hymn of praise, she introduces us to Gail’s place in the universe of stars and infinities where she dwells with God and all of his followers.”
Here’s how to donate to the Dr. Gail Skofronick-Jackson Memorial Scholarship Fund
Words from a family friend
Penny Young, a dear friend of the family, wrote this hymn of praise for Gail:
“In an instant her earthly life ended. In that same instant the universe expanded to welcome its newest star. How Gail had honored the wide expanse of the unknown with her exploration and research. Now the stars, planets, comets, galaxies yet unformed across infinity shifted to open a space for the soul, the spirit of their sister. God was sending to their embrace. And the angels trumpeted their joy.”
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For more information about Gail
Dr. Gail M. Skofronick-Jackson, Program Manager Weather Focus Area