Hugh J. Christian

Hugh J. Christian received the Ph.D. degree in physics from Rice University, Houston, TX, USA, in 1976. He is a pioneer in lightning and thunderstorm research, specializing in the optical observation of lightning from space. He was the Principal Investigator of the optical transient detector (OTD) and the lightning imaging sensor (LIS), and a Chief Advocate and Designer of the geostationary lightning mapper (GLM). His work at NASA provided the first accurate measurements of global lightning activity. He was also instrumental as part of the Lightning Advisory Panel in setting Lightning Launch Commit Criteria for space-based missions.