My story
is likely quite atypical.
I knew in 10th grade
that I wanted to be a near-shore
oceanographer.
What has driven me is understanding
how nature works. And that's why
humanity, not one agency,
not one country, not one continent,
but why humanity has been monitoring
global sea level from space
with exquisite accuracy
for more than 28 years. He's a
world-renowned ocean scientist
who after a successful career in
academia, came to NASA, and for a two dozen
years
Dr. Mike Freilich led all of Earth Science.
And he's really brought
NASA back on the international stage.
And this is not all, you also changed the
discipline of Earth
Science in a profound way. Combining
science and technology to understand our
beautiful planet.
Mike Freilich's legacy is being able to
build the coalitions that are necessary
for us to get as much understanding of
our planet as possible.
There is not another person more
deserving of this honor than Mike
Freilich.
I'm very pleased to rename Sentinel-6A
in the future to be called Sentinel-6
Michael Freilich.
You know, when I  first found out
that Mike
When I first found out that Mike had
cancer, I want him to know that
all the work he's done is extremely
meaningful. I am much better
because of what I learned from him and
because I had the opportunity to work
with him.
Mike is a leader to all of us and a
mentor
and a person who has really advanced
Earth Science
for the entire world. He was absolutely
committed
to dispassionately following the science.
He had
high standards for himself and everyone
around him.
We were able to raise the bar of what we
can expect from ourselves
from our partners and from our larger
global community.
Mike had a very big, very full
red pen. Everybody was always afraid of
that red pen.
His pretty intense energy and one of the
characteristics was the bouncy knee,
which you never missed and it was always there and
you could kind of gauge the way the
meeting was going by the pace of the
bounce.
I have a lot of hilarious emails on my
smartphone
exchange with Mike, which I keep as a
treasurer. It is a no-brainer that uh
that that we all came together and
that they were able to
to really rally around and and allow
the name renaming of Sentinel 6A after
Mike. Earth system science is bigger than
any particular agency, it's bigger than any
single nation, it's bigger than any
single continent,
and I surely hope because humanity
requires it
that we make some significant progress
in understanding.
You did good Dr. Freilich for all of us,
and for that we are all very grateful.
 
