AGU mourns the passing of Mike Freilich

This morning, we learned that Mike Freilich, the former director of NASA’s Earth Science division, passed away. On behalf of AGU, our thoughts are with Mike’s family during this difficult time. He will be greatly missed.

As anyone who had the opportunity to work with Mike knew, he was a passionate and tireless advocate for Earth and space sciences. When the board held a reception for him at our building in April, we enjoyed celebrating his numerous career achievements.

He believed it was important that we encourage the next generation of enthusiasts and experts to explore and enjoy science. We are proud that our data visualization student program that challenges students to use visuals to tell a compelling story and evoke an emotion is named after him.

Mike was a tremendously important friend and colleague to each of us. I know we are all mourning our loss together.