Three members of the Atmospheric System Research (ASR) research and Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility communities were honored at the 2024 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
New AGU Fellow
Photo is courtesy of the University of Washington.
Robert “Rob” Wood, a professor of atmospheric and climate science at the University of Washington, was one of 54 researchers chosen as a 2024 AGU Fellow. Each year, AGU selects no more than 0.1% of its members for fellowship honors, which are awarded to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to earth and space science through a breakthrough, discovery, or innovation in their field.
Wood’s research explores the complex physics of clouds, particularly low clouds, and the intricate cloud-aerosol interactions that influence cloud properties. He has led past ASR projects studying low clouds over ocean and land.
In 2009 and 2010, Wood was the principal investigator for ARM’s Clouds, Aerosol, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer (CAP-MBL) field campaign. He also served as a co-investigator for ARM’s Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) field campaign, which operated in the summer of 2017 and winter of 2018.
Wood is now a co-chair of ASR’s Warm Boundary Layer Processes Working Group. Because of his ASR working group role, he also serves on the ARM-ASR Coordination Team, a constituent group that fosters communication between ARM and ASR.
Read more about Wood in this ASR profile.
Union Award
Jessica D. Lundquist, a snow hydrologist also at the University of Washington, was recognized as a 2024 AGU Ambassador Award recipient. The award is given annually to a small number of honorees whose outstanding contributions and achievements extend beyond those recognized by traditional scientific discipline awards.
Lundquist led a recent campaign that partnered with ARM’s Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign, which operated from 2021 to 2023 near Crested Butte, Colorado. The National Science Foundation-funded Sublimation of Snow (SOS) campaign operated concurrently with SAIL and sought to help researchers better understand snow sublimation, the process in which water molecules transfer directly from ice crystals to water vapor, bypassing the intermediate liquid state.
In November 2023, Lundquist joined with Daniel Feldman, SAIL’s principal investigator, and Gijs de Boer, who led another SAIL partner campaign—the NOAA-funded Study of Precipitation, the Lower Atmosphere and Surface for Hydrometeorology (SPLASH)—for a collaborative workshop. The three scientists brought together their respective campaign teams to talk data, find common ground on research themes, and learn about ongoing work and desired outcomes. In continuation of these ongoing collaborative efforts, a second session of the workshop was held in early January 2025.
Atmospheric Sciences Section Award
Photo is courtesy of Shiraiwa.
Manabu Shiraiwa, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Irvine, received a 2024 Ascent Award. Presented by AGU’s Atmospheric Sciences Section, the award is given annually to four midcareer scientists (who are within eight and 20 years of receiving their PhDs) for their excellence in research and leadership within the atmospheric and climate sciences.
Shiraiwa’s research focuses on kinetic modeling of multiphase processes of atmospheric organic aerosols. He delves into the physical properties and chemical processes of aerosols to better understand their effects on atmospheric chemistry, air quality, and human health.
Shiraiwa has led two ASR projects focused on secondary organic aerosols that analyzed data from ARM’s 2016 Holistic Interactions of Shallow Clouds, Aerosols, and Land-Ecosystems (HI-SCALE) campaign. Shiraiwa also served as an instructor at the 2019 Aerosol Summer School co-sponsored by ARM, ASR, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL).
Nominate Your Peers
AGU is now accepting nominations for 2025 section and union honors. The 2025 AGU Annual Meeting is scheduled for December 15 to 19 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
# # #This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, through the Biological and Environmental Research program as part of the Atmospheric System Research program.