NOAA’S CLIMATE POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP MARKS 100TH APPOINTMENT MILESTONE

On April 20th at NOAA’s Silver Spring, Md. headquarters, participants and organizers from across the country and around the world will gather for a two-day celebration marking the successes of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Postdoctoral Program in Climate and Global Change and the landmark of having awarded 100 fellowships. Romanian-born Irina Marinov is the 100th fellow.

“The next generation of climate scientists has been produced from this program,” said Dr. James Mahoney, assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA deputy administrator. “Among NOAA’s strategic goals is to support and conduct research that helps scientists to understand climate variability and change in order to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond to that change.”

The program focuses on observing, understanding, modeling, and predicting the climate system on seasonal-to-centennial time scales and assessing the regionally specific socioeconomic consequences of climate variability.

Among NOAA’s strategic goals for the next five years is to support and conduct research that helps scientists to understand climate variability and change in order to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond to that change. The Climate and Global Change fellowships program, an initiative of NOAA’s Office of Global Programs, is designed to produce the next generation of researchers who, like Marinov, have both the intellectual ability and the scientific imagination to address global climate issues.

Managed for NOAA by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder, Colo., the program has a 15-year track record of choosing and supporting scientists like Marinov who are likely to become leaders in their fields.

Since the program began, 1,080 people have applied for the coveted slots. As of this year, 115 appointments have been made, equating to a highly competitive 10-percent success rate. Overall, women have received 36 of the 115 appointments, or more than 30 percent. In 2005, 40 percent of the 15 fellowships were awarded to women.

Fellows have come to the program from institutions in 18 states and have found niches in prestigious universities and institutes as well as corporations from Scotland to Mexico and Arizona to Massachusetts.

NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through research to better understand atmospheric and climate variability and to manage wisely our nation's coastal and marine resources.