SENATE MEMORIAL 64

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2013

INTRODUCED BY

Pete Campos

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF DR. JOE MCCAFFREY, JR., AND DECLARING FEBRUARY 27, 2013 "DR. JOE MCCAFFREY, JR., DAY" IN THE SENATE.

     WHEREAS, Dr. Joe McCaffrey, Jr., the descendant of early pioneers to New Mexico, was born and raised in Albuquerque; and

     WHEREAS, Dr. McCaffrey graduated from St. Mary's high school and received a bachelor of science degree and a master of science degree from New Mexico highlands university and a doctorate degree from Colorado state university, where he was a Hewlett-Packard fellow; and

     WHEREAS, he spent thirty years at the naval research laboratory as a computational scientist and as a leader of one of its most productive scientific groups; and

     WHEREAS, that group published groundbreaking papers on the topics of el nino, tide and storm surge, ocean currents and arctic sea ice, and one of those papers was featured on the cover of Nature magazine and was listed as one of the year's top science news stories by Science News and Discover Magazine; and

     WHEREAS, Dr. McCaffrey co-convened the largest session of the American geophysical union's 1994 ocean sciences meeting; and

     WHEREAS, he held many leadership roles in the institute of electrical and electronics engineers and the association for computing machinery; and

     WHEREAS, he was selected from among many well-qualified applicants to be a congressional fellow in the office of Senator Dan Quayle and to attend the naval war college, where he conducted a highly classified study on space warfare; and

     WHEREAS, he wrote the definitive white paper on the preservation of, and was awarded the navy meritorious civilian service award for his efforts to preserve, the global positioning system; and

     WHEREAS, he served in the office of the secretary of defense as the computational technology area leader for climate, weather and ocean forecasting and simulation and on the source-selection evaluation board for four supercomputer systems; and

     WHEREAS, after retiring from the naval research laboratory, Dr. McCaffrey continued work as the associate director of the engineering research center and a professor of computational engineering at Mississippi state university and as a senior research scientist and interim director of the center of higher learning at the Stennis space center; and

     WHEREAS, in 2002, he was named a distinguished graduate of New Mexico highlands university; and

     WHEREAS, he currently lives in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where he teaches physics part time and serves on the board of the New Mexico highlands university foundation and the Las Vegas arts council; and

     WHEREAS, Dr. McCaffrey is a prize-winning outdoor photographer and an avid runner who has competed in the United States senior Olympics and in the Boston marathon seven times;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that Dr. Joe McCaffrey, Jr., be recognized for his many accomplishments and contributions to the scientific community; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Wednesday, February 27, 2013 be declared "Dr. Joe McCaffrey, Jr., Day" in the senate; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to Dr. Joe McCaffrey, Jr.

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