Pieternel Levelt joined the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) as an Associate Director and will lead the Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling (ACOM) Laboratory as director from June 1, 2021 onward. Dr. Levelt previously served as the head of the R&D Satellite Observations department at The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute while also serving as a professor at Delft University of Technology. She will stay affiliated to KNMI and University of Technology Delft. She studied Chemistry at the Free University of Amsterdam, and obtained her Master degree in 1987 in Physical Chemistry. She did her PhD at the Physics department of the Free University of Amsterdam, building an XUV laser and performing spectroscopy and obtained her degree in 1992. She is a scientific initiator of the TROPOMI instrument on Sentinel 5 Precursor and Principal Investigator of the OMI instrument on NASA's EOS-Aura satellite. OMI and TROPOMI are premier air quality instruments that provide essential data to scientists all over the globe. She received the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Group Achievement award in 2005 and 2009, and the 2018 NASA/USGS Pecora Team Award. The OMI team received the 2021 AMS Special Award for international collaboration. In April 2021, Dr. Levelt received the Royal Distinction named Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion for her outstanding research in the field of remote-sensing of the Earth’s atmosphere composition.