James Vladimir Taranik (April 23, 1940 – June 21, 2011) was an American scientist and educator who worked in the area of earth-observation satellite remote sensing. He was Chief of NASA's Non-Renewable Resources Branch and Program Scientist of the Space Shuttle's first scientific flights with cargo that included experiments related to geology, atmospheric chemistry, meteorology, marine biology, and plant physiology in the earth and life sciences. He also held various positions in the Nevada System of Higher Education, including the Desert Research Institute and the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering. Early and personal life Taranik graduated from Stanford University in 1962 with a B.S. in Geology, where he also earned a varsity letter as captain of the water polo team. He served as Staff Geologist for two years in 1966–1967 for the U.S. Army Engineer Command Headquarters in Vietnam, during which time he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. In 1975, he received his Ph.D. in Geology from the Colorado School of Mines, for his geological mapping study, Stratigraphic and Structural Evolution of Breckenridge Area, Central Colorado. He was the great-great-grandson of Sergeant Patrick Gass, an officer of the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition, established to explore and map the newly acquired western half of the United States. Gass wrote the first printed journal of the expedition. Taranik died just nine days before his planned retirement from his position as Director of the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering. He and his wife, Colleen, had two children, Dan and Debra, and three grandchildren. Career Taranik's career began in 1971 at the Iowa Geological Survey, where he founded the Iowa Remote Sensing Laboratory. While in Iowa, he also taught at the University of Iowa, including pioneering aerospace remote sensing courses. He next served as Principal Remote Sensing Scientist at the EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, under the auspices of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), from 1975 to 1979. In 1979, he became branch chief of the Non-Renewable Resources section at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, where he managed NASA's programs for engineering development and flight of aerospace technology for solid earth applications. He was the Program Scientist for the first set of scientific instruments sent up on the Space Shuttle as cargo in 1981, having served in that role for both of the first two Space Shuttle launches. He was awarded NASA's Exceptional Scientific