Management

Scot Henley is the Executive Director of the Mount Washington Observatory. Scot's pre-Observatory career was mainly in tourism-related marketing, focusing primarily in the ski industry. Before being appointed executive director in April of 2006, Scot's ski industry career took him to Deer Valley and Snowbird in Utah, as well as Attitash and most recently King Pine Ski Area at Purity Spring Resort in New Hampshire.

Scot began his Observatory career in 2000 as the organization's first Marketing Manager, coordinating all public relations, special events, sponsorship and advertising efforts.

In his free time, Scot enjoys skiing and snowboarding, hiking, birdwatching and rooting for sports teams from his alma mater, the University of Utah. Scot lives in Madison, NH with his wife, Michelle, and their two boys, Owen and Cabot.

Dr. Peter Crane – Director of Programs, oversees many of the Observatory's educational efforts, including the Winter and Summer EduTrip and Winter DayTrip programs, educational workshops, outreach activities, the Summit Museum and Weather Discovery Center, and the Gladys Brooks Memorial Library. He has lived in the White Mountains for almost thirty years, and served the U.S. Forest Service and the Appalachian Mountain Club in resource management, public information, and educational roles before coming to work for the Observatory.

He began his Observatory career in 1988 as a weather observer, museum manager, and Summit Shift Leader. Peter did his undergraduate work at Harvard College, and earned his doctoral degree in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. An avid year-round hiker, he is also a volunteer trail maintainer for the Appalachian Mountain Club, a member of Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue (AVSAR), and serves on the board of the New Hampshire Outdoor Council.

Dr. Alex Pszenny – completed a B. S. in Chemistry in 1974 and M.S. in Chemistry in 1978, both at Boston College, and a Ph.D. degree in Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island in 1987. He was a Research Assistant at the University of Virginia from 1985 to 1987 then appointed Research Oceanographer at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in 1987. In late 1992 he left NOAA for MIT where he served as Executive Officer of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) Core Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) until late 2001. Since then he has been Research Associate Professor in the Climate Change Research Center within the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space (EOS) at the University of New Hampshire and also serves as the Chief Scientist for the Mount Washington Observatory.

Multiphase chemistry of the marine atmosphere has been Pszenny's research focus. Of particular interest has been the role of reactive halogen species (RHS) in the chemical and physical evolution of near-surface marine air. RHS influence oxidizing capacity through catalytic ozone destruction and through enhanced oxidation of trace gases and of S(IV) in aerosol solutions. The reaction products generated contribute to aerosol nucleation and growth. Pszenny has also studied fixed nitrogen deposition to the ocean and air-sea exchange of hydrocarbons and their impact on atmospheric oxidizing capacity. While a student in the 1970s and early 1980s he contributed to field investigations of acid rain and nuclear bomb fallout in New England and trace metal distributions and availability in Gulf of Maine marine sediments.

Ken Rancourt – Director of Summit Operations, earned his B.S. degree at Iowa State University in Meteorology in 1972, and a Master of Science degree at Montreal's McGill University 1977. Ken joined the staff in 1979, and currently manages the Observatory's scientific research and testing programs. He has over fifteen years of hard-earned expertise in these areas, having served to coordinate the move into the "new" Sherman Adams building from the old Observatory in 1980 to driving the Observatory tractor in the wintertime. He now has good support in these operational areas.

Ken lives in Conway, NH with his wife Jane in a solar powered home. He's made the trip to the summit - surely one of the world's worst commutes - over 1,200 times, his first trip being in 1952. Ken was recently elected Vice President of the Eastern Snow Conference, an international organization which studies snow and snow measurements and serves on the Board of Directors for Friends of Tuckerman Ravine.