Idahosa A. Osaretin

Dr. Idahosa Osaretin is an assistant leader in the Advanced Sensor Systems and Test Beds Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He joined the Laboratory in 2011 as a member of the technical staff in the Applied Space Systems Group, where he led a number of remote-sensing projects, including the development and calibration of airborne and spaceborne microwave sensors. Osaretin was actively involved in building the small satellite program portfolio in the Space Systems and Technology Division, where he led the design and on-orbit deployment of several small satellite payloads, starting with the design of a single-band radiometer on the novel Micro-sized Microwave Atmospheric Satellite I (MicroMAS-1); the design of a triband radiometer on the Microwave Radiometer Technology Acceleration (MiRATA) program; and the design of a quad-band radiometer payload on the Micro-sized Microwave Atmospheric Satellite II (MicroMAS-2). The MicroMAS-2 satellite was the first CubeSat to produce multiband radiometric images of the earth’s atmosphere. Success of those small satellite programs led to the Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) program. TROPICS is a NASA-funded Earth Venture Instrument program that employs a constellation of CubeSats to provide rapid-refresh microwave measurements over the tropics that are used to observe the thermodynamics of the troposphere and precipitation structure, including inner-core conditions, of storm (i.e., tropical cyclone) systems. 

Prior to joining the Advanced Sensor Systems and Test Beds Group, Osaretin was an instrument engineer and science data record (SDR) scientist for the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) Instrument on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program, leading to successful on-orbit deployments of two ATMS instruments: S-NPP ATMS in 2011 and NOAA-20 (JPSS-1) ATMS in 2017. Osaretin and the ATMS Science Team were awarded the 2017 Robert H. Goddard Award for Science, and the 2017 NASA Agency Honor Award for their contributions to the JPSS program.

Osaretin received a BS degree in electrical and computer engineering, an MS degree in electrical engineering, and a PhD in electrical engineering, all from the Ohio State University. Osaretin is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.