It is with tremendous sadness that ECOlogic confirms the loss of Charles Falkenberg, a devoted father, a dear friend, and a valued colleague. Charles, his wife Leslie, and daughters Zoe (age 8) and Dana (age 3) were traveling together to Canberra, Australia on the morning of Tuesday, September 11th aboard the American flight from Dulles International that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon.

There are no words sufficient to express the impact of this event on the ECOlogic family. Our thoughts today are with Charles and Leslie’s families, their parents and siblings, as they cope with this tragedy.

Charles has been a driving force within ECOlogic since he first joined the company in 1998. First, as a Lead Engineer and later as Director of Research, Charles took a keen interest in Earth Science data systems that put him in the forefront of ECOlogic’s NASA related business. His participation at all levels within the Earth Science community has been rewarded with the respect and friendship of many across the country.

Charles began his professional career in software in the early 1980’s, and by the end of that decade had developed a more focused interest in software engineering for scientific and environmental applications. For the last decade, Charles applied this interest to a whole host of problems; from the Exxon Valdez oil spill data collection, through environmental impact study visualization tools, to data systems development for the study of global and regional environmental issues.

Charles was a rare individual, combining a strong sense of social responsibility, leadership and professionalism. He was a pleasure to work with and we are honored to have known him. He will be greatly missed.