The Washington Post profiles Compton Tucker this week as part of its focus on federal employees that are making a difference. Tucker is an earth scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center who pioneered the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which uses remote sensing to monitor photosynthetic activity of plants and trees to monitor changing ecosystems. The measurements help scientists determine the amount of carbon dioxide consumed by plants, and are a key indicator of climate change and agricultural productivity.

Earth scientists credit Tucker’s NDVI work for establishing a worldwide standard to measure not just the number of plants and trees in a particular area, but how well they perform. “His genius is in his ability to take data that was qualitative and make it quantitative.”

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