Remembering “Mike” Garstang
Dr. Michael Garstang, one of the founders of SWA, passed away September 11, 2025 at the age of 95. Typical of Mike, he was working on a scientific paper for publication the day before he passed. Six days prior to that ,he attended a BOD meeting as SWA’s Chairman of the Board to help SWA in our planning for future activities.
Mike and the other original founders, Dr. Robert Simpson and Dr. Joanne Simpson, incorporated SWA in 1980 and, over the course of 35 years, helped SWA maintain its primary identity as a private sector R&D company that works with NASA, NSF, DOE and other federal agencies. Initially, this focus was on atmospheric science research such as tropical and boundary layer meteorology as well as weather modification research and operational programs dealing with the modification of hailstorms in the USA and South Africa. Some of the earliest SWA contracts involved the assessment of the wind energy potential for the States of Maryland as well the detailed evaluation at specific sites used by NASA and the DOE for wind turbine design and operation studies. In addition, Mike helped guide SWA and its’ work with the insurance industry and the quantification of event and storm probability for insurance underwriters. As time went on, Mike and SWA’s work also grew to focus on the integration of atmospheric sciences into projects of a more interdisciplinary and/or applied nature. These projects included environmental monitoring and fugitive dust control associated with the handling and transportation of coal for clients such as Norfolk Southern , Burlington Northern &Santa Fe and Union Pacific railways, Kinder Morgan and Dominion Terminal (VA); atmospheric enhanced communications by elephants and other wildlife; and the utility of atmospheric waves by birds such as eagles.
Mike’s impact on SWA will continue to be recognized through all the continuing work here at SWA. Much of this can also be seen in the citations of his numerous authored and co-authored scholarly papers . One of SWA’s more recent published papers with Mike as lead author, is “Garstang, M., Greco, S., Emmitt, G.D., Miller, T.A. and Lanzone, M., 2022. An instrumented golden eagle’s (aquila chrysaetos) long-distance flight behavior. Animals, 12(11), p.1470.” which can be found at https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/11/1470
However, just as important as his contributions to SWA, the company, and to the scientific body of knowledge is the often-daily interactions we had with Mike through our work at SWA. There was rarely a day that went by where we didn’t learn something about science or life from him or laugh with him and his amazing stories and memories .
As our website shows, SWA continues its focus on basic atmospheric research (primarily airborne Doppler Wind Lidar) and the development of technologies and services related to the reduction of fugitive emissions from bulk material handling operations. Following on Mike’s legacy of educating (25 PhD and 16 MS students from Florida State and the University of Virginia) and presenting/publishing in the scientific media, one of the success metrics of SWA has been and continues to be the number of its professional presentations and publications by its employees (swa.com - Environmental Laser Division References).