Ernest Hilsenrath joined Goddard in 1962 and retired in 2005 and held various assignments and positions in Goddard's Earth science programs specializing in atmospheric research. He did pioneering research on stratospheric ozone science using in-situ and remote sensing techniques. He flew an SBUV instrument on the space shuttle eight times to calibrate the NASA-NOAA ozone monitoring system and also you used the space shuttle to explore novel ozone measuring techniques. He was then selected as Deputy Project Scientist for the Aura mission and also became the US Principal Investigator for the OMI ozone instrument flying onboard Aura.
After retiring as a civil servant, he had a four year assignment at NASA HQ as a Program Manager in the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate. Retiring again in 2010 he is now the technical editor for NASA's Earth science newsletter, the Earth Observer, published at GSFC, working as a consultant to GST.