NOAA honored members of the National Weather Service with this year’s Group Silver Medal for Scientific/Engineering Achievement for their implementation of the space weather numerical prediction model WSA-Enlil. The Gold and Silver Medals are the highest two honor awards that can be granted by the Secretary of Commerce. Three CIRES team members, with the Space Weather Prediction Center, played an integral role in the implementation: George Millward, Curt de Koning, and Ratina Dodani. They will receive CIRES Silver Medals at Rendezvous 2013. Additionally, the WSA-Enlil project has its origins in former CIRES employees Nick Arge and Dusan Odstrcil.

The NOAA members honored were Vic Pizzo, Robert Craver, Doug Biesecker, Ann Newman, Michael Husler, John Ward, Justin Cooke, and Christine Caruso Magee. According to NOAA, “The group is recognized for implementing the first space weather numerical prediction model, the WSA-Enlil, on the National Centers for Environmental Prediction supercomputer. In accomplishing this task, the group encountered several challenges that required them to quickly learn new technologies. The end result of this implementation allowed for Space Weather Prediction Center forecasters to not only issue more accurate forecasts of geomagnetic storms, but to also issue them with better lead time.”

CIRES Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR) will celebrate its 10th anniversary September 27, 2012 in the Old Main Auditorium on the University of Colorado-Boulder campus.

The day’s activities will feature panel discussions with invited faculty members and scientists, as well as current and former members and affiliates of CSTPR including Roger Pielke Jr., CSTPR’s first director, and former CIRES director Susan Avery, who together founded the Center.

Dr. John Holdren, science advisor to President Barack Obama, will give the keynote address at 7.30-9.00 pm. 

The day’s events are free and open to the public.  Seating for the keynote address is limited and is on a first come, first served basis.  It is strongly recommended that attendees arrive early to assure a seat. Overflow seating will be provided in the CIRES building.  For detailed information about the day’s agenda click here.

The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) will celebrate its 45th anniversary September 28, 2012 in the Old Main Chapel of the University of Colorado-Boulder campus.

CIRES Interim Director, Dr. William Lewis Jr. will kick off the day’s activities with a welcome speech at 9.00a.m. Three of CIRES previous directors—Dr. Konrad Steffen, Dr. Susan Avery and Dr. Robert Sievers will also be speaking and Dr. David Fahey will be presenting the opening address “Airborne Exploration of the Changing Atmosphere.”

NASA Chief Scientist and Director of CIRES Earth Science and Observation Center (ESOC) Waleed Abdalati will present “Perspectives on a Changing Planet” and current and former CIRES scientists will also give brief presentations.

Luncheon with a Graduate Student Poster Session will take place in the tent, south of Old Main in Norlin Quad. 

The day’s events are by invitation only. For detailed information about the day’s agenda click here.

Roger Pielke, Jr., a CIRES Fellow and a member of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR), is this year’s recipient of the Geological Society of America (GSA) Public Service Award. The GSA Public Service Award was established in 1998 in honor of Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and is awarded for contributions that have materially enhanced the public's understanding of the earth sciences, or significantly served decision-makers in the application of scientific and technical information in public affairs and public policy related to the earth sciences.

Former CIRES graduate student Sujay Kaushal has been awarded the 2012 International Recognition of Professional Excellence (IRPE) Prize in limnology by the International Ecology Institute. The IRPE Prize honors “a young ecologist (not older than 40 years) who has published uniquely independent, original and/or challenging research representing an important scientific breakthrough, and/or who must work under particularly difficult conditions.” It carries an endowment of 3,000 Euro. The International Ecology Institute, in Germany, is a nonprofit organization of research ecologists dedicated to fostering ecological knowledge and awareness. Kaushal is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland.