James Franklin is a Hurricane Specialist at the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center in Miami, where he is one of six forecasters responsible for all tropical cyclone forecasts and warnings for the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea,  and the eastern North Pacific Ocean.  He joined the Center in 1999, after seventeen years as a scientist with NOAA's Hurricane Research Division.  During that time he made over 80 hurricane eyewall penetrations on the NOAA P-3 Hurricane Hunter aircraft in support of research into hurricane motion and  structure. He developed the software packages used throughout the Nation's hurricane reconnaissance fleet to examine, process, and transmit Global Positioning System (GPS) dropwindsonde data.  He is a recognized expert on interpretation of these observations. Mr. Franklin has Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He has published over 20 scientific articles on hurricane motion, inner-core structure, forecasting, and meteorological instrumentation.  He was born and raised  in Miami, Florida.