Forrest Melton is a senior research scientist with the NASA Ames Cooperative for Research in Earth Science and Technology (ARC-CREST) and with California State University, Monterey Bay. Forrest currently serves as the program scientist for the NASA Western Water Applications Office, and as an associate program manager for the NASA Earth Science Applied Sciences Water Resources Program.

Since 2003, Forrest has worked in the Biospheric Sciences Branch at NASA Ames Research Center on the development of modeling and data assimilation frameworks including the Satellite Irrigation Management Support (SIMS) system, the Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (TOPS) and the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX). His research interests include applications of satellite data to improve management of natural resources, remote sensing of evapotranspiration and agricultural water requirements and ecosystem and carbon cycle modeling.

Forrest holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Earth Systems Science from Stanford University and has authored over forty papers and book chapters on applications of remote sensing. He is the recipient of honor awards from NASA for his contributions to TOPS and NEX and has been recognized for his work on applications of satellite data for water management with awards from the California Department of Water Resources, the Federal Labs Consortium and NASA.