Edil A Sepulveda Carlo

Edil Antonio Sepúlveda Carlo is an earth scientist, geologist, environmental attorney, community advocate, and avid traveler. At NASA, he works on Earth Science missions connecting satellite and scientific data to real-world applications on disaster recovery, energy, agriculture, climate resilience, and environmental justice. He is currently a senior research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, where he acts as the Deputy Project Manager for Science Strategy & Engagement at NASA’s Atmospheric Composition Program. Edil is also the Stakeholder Engagement Lead for NASA’s Black Marble, a premier high-resolution, daily global satellite imagery product that captures Earth at night, isolating artificial light emissions from human settlements, infrastructure, gas flares, and wildfires. His work portfolio includes coordination and stakeholder engagement for multi-agency airborne missions on GHG monitoring and air quality; industry and private sector engagement; and science applications work on projects related to modeling, energy, disasters, climate, amongst other topics. 

Before this role, Edil was a deputy program manager on the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. He was the program coordinator for NASA's Climate Resilience & Community Action (CRCA) Program. In this role, he coordinated the Climate Resilience Program as well as the Equity & Environmental Justice Program at NASA. He championed science to action, and the use of Earth Observations to improve decision-making and societal benefits. Previously, he served for 8+ years as a research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center where he worked as the Applications Coordinator for NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) Initiative, as well as the former Co-Chair for the Applied Earth Observations Innovation Partnership (AEOIP) between NASA & USDA Forest Service. He engaged stakeholders from all sectors – federal, state, and local agencies, non-governmental organizations, academia, and the private sector – with NASA-funded carbon scientists to ensure that data products developed were used in diverse applications and decision-making contexts. He has been working in environmental justice and climate science & policy issues for over 15 years. 

Edil was also part of NASA's Black Marble Science Team, which was awarded NASA's Group Achievement Medal in 2018 for their efforts to support Puerto Rico’s recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The team developed the first ever near-real time monitoring of power outage-affected areas in Puerto Rico at neighborhood scales using the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) “day-night band” on board the Suomi NPP satellite. 

Edil has provided support to the applications efforts of other NASA’s Earth Science Division missions, such as Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2); the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE); and the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission.

He contributes to the NASA in Spanish Program and is a frequent speaker on climate science topics for major Spanish language networks in the United States like Telemundo and Univision, and other media in Latin America and Spain.

He was an Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar in 2019.

Before working at NASA, Edil was a consultant in climate change and environmental legal issues for the Government of Puerto Rico. 

He holds a B.S. in Geology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, a Juris Doctor from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, a Master’s degree in Climate & Society with an Energy & Environmental Policy Concentration from Columbia University in the City of New York, and a recently completed Project Management Certification from Cornell University. 

Project Management Certification, Cornell University

M.A., Climate & Society, Energy and Environmental Policy Concentration, Columbia University

J.D., University of Puerto Rico School of Law

B.S., Geology, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus

Project Management