Awards & Recognition

2025

Adam Ahern, Alex Baron, Samantha DeLone, Colin Gurganus, Eric Jensen, Mike Lawler, Ming Lyu, Catherine Rasco, Eric Ray, Mike Robinson, Sam Taylor, Eleanor Waxman, CIRES Bronze Medal along with Elizabeth (Lizzy) Asher, Patrick Cullis, Geoff Dutton, Eric Hintsa, Fred Moore, David Nance (NOAA GML), for establishing a new paradigm for NOAA-directed stratospheric science with the successful execution of the Stratospheric Aerosol processes, Budget and Radiative Effects (SABRE) 2023 airborne science mission. Read More
Langford, A.O., C.J. Senff, R.J. Alvarez II, K.C. Aikin, R. Ahmadov, W.M. Angevine, S. Baidar, W.A. Brewer, S.S. Brown, E.P. James, B.J. McCarty, S.P. Sandberg, and M.L. Zucker, Were wildfires responsible for the unusually high surface ozone in Colorado during 2021?, Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, doi:10.1029/2022JD037700, 2023. Top 10 most viewed papers published in JGR 2023. Among work published in 2023, this article received some of the most views in the 12 months following online publication. This research generated immediate impact and helped to raise the visibility of Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres.
Murphy, D.M., M. Abou-Ghanem, D.J. Cziczo, K.D. Froyd, J. Jacquot, M.J. Lawler, C. Maloney, J.M.C. Plane, M.N. Ross, G.P. Schill, and X. Shen, Metals from spacecraft reentry in stratospheric aerosol particles, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi:10.1073/pnas.2313374120, 2023. NOAA OAR Outstanding Scientific Paper Award Read More
Womack, C.C., W.S. Chace, S. Wang, M. Baasandorj, D.L. Fibiger, A. Franchin, L. Goldberger, C. Harkins, D.S. Jo, B.H. Lee, J.C. Lin, B.C. McDonald, E.E. McDuffie, A.M. Middlebrook, A. Moravek, J.G. Murphy, J.A. Neuman, J.A. Thorton, P.R. Veres, and S.S. Brown, Midlatitude ozone depletion and air quality impacts from industrial halogen emissions in the Great Salt Lake Basin, >Environmental Science & Technology, doi:10.1021/acs.est.2c05376, 2023. NOAA OAR Outstanding Scientific Paper Award Read More

2024

Alan Brewer (2), Andy Langford, Brian Carroll, Carrie Womack (2), Chelsea Thompson (7), Christoph Senff, David Fahey, Drew Rollins, Eleanor Waxman, Gregg Schill (3), Jessica Gilman, Jim Roberts, Joey Taylor, Joshua Schwarz (3), Matt Coggan (2), Max Holloway, Megan Melamed (2), Mike Robinson, Raul Alvarez (3), Rick Tisinai, Siyuan Wang, Steven Brown, Victoria Treadaway, Wyndom Chace, Zach Decker, NOAA Boulder Outreach Coordinating Committee Gold Star Award for your contributions as NOAA Ambassadors, significantly enhancing NOAA's ability to increase awareness of NOAA's mission through outreach, education, and service. Your hard work and commitment to spreading NOAA's word has made the NOAA Ambassadors Program a success. Whether engaging with local communities, participating in educational events, or contributing your expertise, you have embodied the true spirit of service that makes NOAA's mission keep moving forward.
Alexandre Baron, Katie Smith, CIRES IRP Grant for 'Advancing understanding of stratospheric aerosol: A novel balloon-borne collection/off-line analysis approach' Read More
Amy Butler, Scientific and Technological Activities Commission (STAC) Middle Atmosphere Committee of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Outstanding Service Award for exemplary dedication to advancing middle atmosphere science through public engagement, mentorship, and long-standing service in numerous scientific organizations. Read More
Chelsea Stockwell, Matthew Coggon, Jeffrey Peischl, Ken Aikin, Kristen Zuraski, CIRES Bronze Medal for exceptional service to communities affected by the Marshall Fire in providing timely air quality information to support recovery efforts. Read More
Christoph Senff, Eleanor Waxman, Wyndom Chace, CIRES Bronze Medal along with other CIRES/NOAA Outreach Ambassadors, for significantly enhancing NOAA's ability to increase awareness of NOAA's mission through outreach, education and service. Read More
Daniel M. Murphy, Optical Particle Characterization Apparatus Patent US 0151624. Embodiments in accordance with the present invention relate to an apparatus for optical characterization of aerosol particles, including a laser source; a beam splitter configured to split the laser into two orthogonally polarized optical beams, wherein one component of the orthogonally polarized optical beam is deflected from the second component of the polarized optical beam at a predetermined angle; a cylindrical lens for collecting the two orthogonally polarized optical beams and focusing each of the optical beams to an interrogation region; an inlet positioned to deliver the sample gas including particles to the interrogation region as a single particle gas stream through the interrogation region; an ellipsoidal mirror positioned at a non-perpendicular angle adjacent to paths traversed by the polarized optical beams to reflect scattered optical beams from the particles traversing through the interrogation region; and a photodetector for measuring the scattered optical beams reflected by the mirror.
David Fahey, Elsevier / Atmospheric Environment Haagen-Smit Prize for the paper (Lee, D.S., D.W. Fahey, A. Skowron, M.R. Allen, U. Burkhardt, Q. Chen, S.J. Doherty, S. Freeman, P.M. Forster, J. Fuglestvedt, A. Gettelman, R.R.D. Leon, L.L. Lim, M.T. Lund, R.J. Millar, B. Owen, J.E. Penner, G. Pitari, M.J. Prather, R. Sausen, and L.J. Wilcox, The contribution of global aviation to anthropogenic climate forcing for 2000 to 2018, Atmospheric Environment, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117834, 2021) in recognition of its deep delve into all of the pathways by which aviation affects climate, by estimating both the radiative forcing and the effective radiative forcing of all mechanisms such as contrail formation, NOX chemistry and sulfate aerosol reflectivity. This shows that non-CO2 radiative forcing accounts for around two thirds of the total radiative forcing. The total climate impact of global aviation is estimated and put in the context of total anthropogenic forcing. It then uses CO2 and non-CO2 radiative forcing to explore various scenarios to understand the interplay between these and short-term versus longer-term radiative forcing. The paper generated a lot of media interest around the role of contrails in warming the planet, and also has been referred to in the COP meetings. The study is not only comprehensive in terms of mechanisms, but also in terms of timeframe as the whole period from 2000 to 2018 is modelled, allowing trends in aviation effects to be viewed. With more than 800 citations since publication in 2021, this paper has clearly had massive impact across both the academic and user communities. It has huge policy relevance by establishing the full climate impact of global aviation in context and facilitating an informed policy debate over mitigation options. Read More
Jake Gristey, International Radiation Commission (IRC) Young Scientist Award Read More
Jennifer Bednar (now at PSL), NOAA OAR Employee of the Year for demonstrating personal and professional excellence building coalitions to address complicated and difficult leadership and management tasks and delivering professional development training.
Scott Sandberg, NOAA Silver Sherman Award for outstanding engineering support of the 2024 CSL Utah Summer Ozone Study (USOS) field campaign. Scott's efforts were essential in specifying and overseeing the upgrades to the new CSL mobile laboratory van, a key sampling platform of the field campaign. His technical knowledge, attention to detail, and communication skills were key aspects of designing and installing the van power system to accommodate the large sampling instrument suite and air conditioning requirements. His engineering support resulted in an on-time delivery of the van to meet the tight summer deployment schedule. Read More
Steve Ciciora, NOAA Silver Sherman Award for his contributions to CSL during his career. NOAA CSL turns ideas into instruments that advance the science of our atmosphere. This is in no small part due to the singular contributions of Steven Ciciora, an engineer central to much of CSL's impressive record over the last thirty years. Recently, he quarterbacked numerous electronics solutions that allowed improved and more frequent stratospheric aerosol measurements; reduced instrument noise leading to high-altitude direct measurements of trace gases key to stratospheric ozone and aerosol production; and improved existing instruments and enabled new designs. His is a CSL superstar. Read More
Steven Brown, American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow Read More
Troy Thornberry, Charles Brock, Steven Brown, Amy Butler, Steven Ciciora, Gregory Frost, Sara Gibbons, Renee Jeong, Ronda Knott, Daniel Murphy, Doug Ohlhorst, Andrew Rollins, Karen Rosenlof, Gregory Schill, Joshua Schwarz, Chelsea Thompson, Catherine Weable, NOAA Bronze Medal along with Victoria Breeze (NOAA CPO) and Bradley Hall (NOAA GML), for establishing a new paradigm for NOAA-directed stratospheric science with the successful execution of the Stratospheric Aerosol processes, Budget and Radiative Effects (SABRE) 2023 airborne science mission. Read More

2023

Amy Butler, American Geophysical Union Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award for insightful studies elucidating how the stratosphere couples to the troposphere and to improve predictability. Read More
Ann Thorne, NOAA Silver Sherman Award for going above and beyond her core duties at the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory by taking on extra responsibilities related to students, educations and outreach, especially monitoring of interns and organizing the summer intern program for CSL, ESRL, and OAR. Read More
Carsten Warneke, Jessica Gilman, NOAA Bronze Medal for exceptional service to communities affected by the Marshall Fire in providing timely air quality information to support recovery efforts. Read More
Chelsea Thompson, NOAA Silver Sherman Award for outstanding support of the 2022 UNEP/WMO (United Nations Environment Programme/World Meteorological Organization) Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion. Her experience and training as a scientist, her imagination and skills as a graphic artist, her attention to detail, and people skills were essential aspects in producing these exceptional documents that have been distributed to all nations of the world. Read More
Daniel Murphy, NOAA Technology Transfer Award for developing a novel, self-calibrating instrument for measuring aerosol extinction that has been patented and commercialized. Read More
Gregory Frost, NESDIS Collaboration Award for contributions as part of the Table Top Exercise Team that provided a tactical approach to future-looking thematic use cases assessing decision-making needs and planning future resources. The focus was on collectively addressing real scenarios and finding new solutions to gaps in data and failures in public messaging about environmental hazards.
Karen Rosenlof, American Geophysical Union Fellow Read More
Karen Rosenlof, Troy Thornberry, Steve Cicicora, Ru-Shan Gao, Bryan Johnson (GML), Gary Morris (GML), Alice Crawford (ARL), DOC Silver Medal for successfully executing a rapid response campaign to study the atmospheric impact of the unprecedented Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano eruption. Read More
Richard Marchbanks, Caroline Womack, Steven Brown, CIRES IRP Grant for 'Low-cost deep ultraviolet cavity enhanced spectrometer' Read More
Ru-Shan Gao, NOAA Distinguished Career Award for conceiving and implementing novel experimental and analytical techniques to improve understanding of atmospheric chemistry and physics. Read More
Yu, P., S.M. Davis, O.B. Toon, R.W. Portmann, C.G. Bardeen, J.E. Barnes, H. Telg, C. Maloney, X. Wang, and K.H. Rosenlof, Persistent stratospheric warming due to 2019-20 Australian wildfire smoke, Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2021GL092609, 2021. Top cited article in GRL 2021-2022. Among work published in an issue between January 2021 and December 2022.
Yunqian Zhu, Elizabeth Asher (CSL, now at GML), Patrick Cullis (GML), Emrys Hall (GML), Dale Hurst (GML), Allen Jordan (GML), Kensy Xiong (GML, now at Agilent Technologies), Michael Todt (CSL, now at Finnish Meteorological Institute), CIRES Silver Medal for successfully executing a rapid response campaign to study the atmospheric impact of the unprecedented Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano eruption. Read More

2022

Andrew Rollins, Methods and Apparatus for Detecting Nitric Oxide Patent US 16913088. A new instrument that uses a laser-based fluorescence (LIF) method to sensitively measure nitrogen oxide (NO, a product of combustion and a key component in urban air pollution) in the atmosphere. This new instrument has the potential to revolutionize how we measure NO and NO2 from research aircraft, which has been traditionally measured using a chemiluminescence (CL) method that has changed little in the last 35 years. The new LIF instrument greatly reduces weight, power consumption, and eliminates known interferences suffered by the CL method. The LIF was deployed with great success on the recent joint NOAA/NASA FIREX-AQ mission. Read More
Angela Nyul, Ann Thorne, Jeanne Waters, NOAA OAR EEO Award for Exemplary Service
Ann Thorne, Jeanne Waters, NOAA OAR EEO Award for Exemplary Service
Carrie Womack, Ronda Knott, Chelsea Stockwell, Raul Alvarez, Richard Marchbanks, Andy Langford, Jessica Gilman, Greg Frost, Chelsea Thompson, Rick Tisinai, NOAA Boulder Outreach Coordinating Committee Gold Star Award for going above and beyond, giving some of their hours to outreach and education, adding to the NOAA Boulder Outreach efforts. Without this support, the BOCC could not reach as many school groups, participate in as many conferences, provide as many seminars, treat campus staff to special programs, or answer the many questions from the general public, as we do.
Chelsea Stockwell, Michael A. Robinson, James M. Roberts, CIRES IRP Grant for 'An On-Line Source for the Production and Calibration of Hydroxy Nitrates of Atmospheric Importance' Read More
Daniel L. Albritton, CARB Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award for his air quality improvement achievements in the category of policy. Read More
Elizabeth Asher, CIRES Outstanding Performance Award in Science & Engineeering for pioneering deployment of aerosol instrumentation for long-duration flights in the stratosphere - work that has produced illuminating new data. Read More
Graham Feingold, Alan Brewer, Scott Sandberg, NOAA Bronze Medal with colleagues in OAR, for scientific achievement in the design and implementation of the complex Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC). Read More
Greg Frost, NOAA Bronze Medal with colleagues in NESDIS, NWS, OAR, NMFS, NOS, and OCFO, for ensuring that NOAA's next generation geostationary satellite system will meet the most critical observing needs for our nation and partners. Read More
Jessica Gilman, NOAA Bronze Medal for synthesis, critical evaluation, and communication to scientists and the public of the global air quality impacts of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Read More
Karen Rosenlof, World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Co-chair Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate (SPARC) Scientific Steering Group Read More
Kenneth Aikin, Sunil Baidar, Brandi McCarty, Jeff Peischl, Michael A. Robinson, Christoph Senff, Chelsea Stockwell, Georgios Gkatzelis, Aaron Lamplugh, Matt Coggon, Carsten Warneke, CIRES Bronze Medal for synthesis, critical evaluation, and communication to scientists and the public of the global air quality impacts of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Read More
Maxwell Holloway, CIRES Outstanding Performance Award in Science & Engineeering for extraordinary support of the Atmospheric Remote Sensing group's instrument development and field deployments, including the CalFiDE wildfire research campaign. Read More
NOAA (Steve Brown and CSL Mobile Laboratory researchers) , Boulder County Public Health Healthy Community Award for their work in supporting our communities impacted by the Marshall Fire. The work of NOAA in providing outdoor air monitoring immediately after the fire throughout the burn area to measure gaseous air pollutants caused by the fire was essential in ensuring residents in and around the burn area were safe. Their findings provided much needed answers to outdoor air quality health concerns of the community and is to be commended. Read More
Rebecca Washenfelder, European Geosciences Union Executive Editor on the Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Editorial board Read More
Steve Brown, CO-LABS Governor's Award for High-Impact Research for Pathfinding Partnerships with NOAA and CIRES colleagues for rapid-response science in service to communities after the Marshall Fire. Read More
Steve Brown, American Geophysical Union Fellow Read More
Sunil Baidar, Maxwelll Holloway, Jan Kazil, Richard Marchbanks, Takanobu Yamaguichi, Michael Zucker, Pornampai Narenpitak, Amanda Makoweicki, CIRES Bronze Medal with colleagues Ludovic Bariteau (PSL), Byron Blomquist (PSL), Steve Borestein (GML), Radiance Calmer (PSL), Gijs de Boer (PSL), Jonathan Hamilton (PSL), for scientific achievement in the design and implementation of the complex Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign. Read More
Troy Thornberry, NOAA OAR Employee of the Year for exceptional service to NOAA through leadership of two stratospheric field experiments, ACCLIP and SABRE. Read More

2021

Amy Butler, NOAA Daniel L. Albritton Outstanding Science Communicator Award for outstanding communication of NOAA research regarding the impact of variations in the stratospheric polar vortex on weather at the Earth's surface. Read More
Catherine Rasco, Megan Melamed, Chelsea Thompson, CIRES Outstanding Performance Award in Service for redesigning the Chemical Sciences Laboratory website and orchestrating excellent use of ESRI 'Story Maps' in support of the 5-year laboratory review. Read More
David Fahey, Brian McDonald, Gregory Frost, NOAA Bronze Medal with colleagues Ariel Stein (ARL), Jim Butler (GML), Jennifer Mahoney (GSL), Venkatachalam Ramaswamy (GFDL), Ken Mooney (CPO), Mitchell Goldberg (NESDIS), Shobha Kondragunta (NESDIS), for expeditiously and skillfully coordinating research that leveraged the unique scientific opportunity resulting from the COVID-19 global pandemic. Read More
Gregory Frost, NOAA Bronze Medal with colleagues Georg Grell (GSL), Rick Saylor (ARL), Ivanka Stajner (NWS), Jeff McQueen (NWS), Jun Wang (NWS), Shobha Kondragunta (NESDIS), for the development of the Global Ensemble Forecast System - Aerosols (GEFS-Aerosols) model to support air quality alerts and visibility forecasts. Read More
Gregory Frost, NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Collaboration Award with the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) User Engagement team, for demonstrating excellent collaboration across multiple thematic communities (Fire, Agriculture, Human Health, Weather Forecasting and Oceans), and for holding 5 workshops where user needs were collected and translated into requirements for GeoXO instrument selection. Read More
Gregory Frost, NOAA OAR Employee of the Year for extraordinary leadership in coordinating atmospheric composition and chemistry research across OAR programs, laboratories, and NOAA Line Offices and enhancing the role that atmospheric composition and chemistry plays in NOAA achieving its mission. Read More
Grell, G.A., S.E. Peckham, R. Schmitz, S.A. McKeen, G. Frost, W.C. Skamarock, and B. Eder, Fully coupled 'online' chemistry within the WRF model, Atmospheric Environment, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.04.027, 2005. Top 10 paper that has influenced the field of tropospheric chemistry. Per P.S. Monks, A.R. Ravishankara, E. von Schneidemesser, and R. Sommariva, Opinion: Papers that shaped tropospheric chemistry, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, doi:10.5194/acp-21-12909-2021, 2021. Read More
Kristen Zuraski, Andrew Rollins, Jeff Peischl, CIRES IRP Grant for 'An in-situ mid-infrared spectroscopic instrument for atmospheric NO2, NOx, and NOy' Read More
Matthew Coggon, CIRES Outstanding Performance Award in Science and Engineering for changing our understanding of urban and wildfire ozone formation and resulting in air quality impacts. Read More
Montzka, S.A., G.S. Dutton, P. Yu, E. Ray, R. Portmann, J.S. Daniel, L. Kuijpers, B.D. Hall, D. Mondeel, C. Siso, D. Nance, M. Rigby, A. Manning, L. Hu, F. Moore, B.R. Miller, and J.W. Elkins, An unexpected and persistent increase in global emissions of ozone-depleting CFC-11, Nature, doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0106-2, 2018. NOAA OAR Outstanding Scientific Paper Award Read More
Ravan Ahmadov (GSL), Eric James (GSL), Stuart McKeen, CIRES Outstanding Performance Award in Science and Engineering for leading a multi-year effort to implement a biomass burning module in an existing hourly Numerical Weather Prediction system to predict smoke movement. Read More
Ronda Knott, NOAA Silver Sherman Award for outstanding performance as the Executive Administrative Assistant to the Director of the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her above and beyond support derives from a deep commitment to the CSL mission, an excellent work ethic, superb organizational skills, enthusiasm in meeting our challenges and a welcoming and outgoing personality. We are extremely fortunate to have her as a member of CSL. Read More
Xiaoli Zhou, CFMiP 2021 Virtual Meeting on Clouds, Precipitation, Circulation and Climate Sensitivity Early Career Scientist Award for her presentation 'Sea surface temperature control on the aerosol-induced brightness of marine clouds over the North Atlantic Ocean: Implications for cloud feedback in a future warmer climate' Read More

2020

Aaron Lamplugh, Adam Ahern, Ale Franchin, Ann Weickmann, Brian McDonald, Carrie Womack, Carsten Warneke, Catherine Rasco, Christina Williamson, Frank Erdesz, Georgios Gkatzelis, Ilann Bourgeois, J. Andy Neuman, Jeff Peischl, Joseph Katich, Karl Froyd, Ken Aikin, Kyra Slovacek, Laurel Watts, Macy Morgan, Matt Coggon, Max Holloway, Megan Bela, Michael Robinson, Michael Zucker, Nicholas L. Wagner, Pamela Rickly, Paul Schroeder, Richard Tisinai, Stuart McKeen, Troy Thornberry, Zachary Decker, CIRES Administrator's Award for the planning and conduct of the largest interdisciplinary research project ever to study wildfire smoke composition, chemistry, and evolution. Read More
Aaron Lamplugh, Adam Ahern, Ale Franchin, Ann Weickmann, Caroline Womack, Carsten Warneke, Catherine Rasco, Christina Williamson, Frank Erdesz, Georgios Gkatzelis, Ilann Bourgeois, J. Andy Neuman, Jeff Peischl, Joseph Katich, Ken Aikin, Macy Morgan, Richard Tisinai, Matt Coggon, Michael Robinson, Michael Zucker, Nicholas Wagner, Pamela Rickly, Zachary Decker, Ravan Ahmadov (GSL), CIRES Bronze Medal with colleagues from the CU Department of Chemistry, for outstanding execution of the FIREX-AQ mission, a joint venture with NASA to improve understanding of air quality and climate impacts of fires. Read More
Adam Ahern, Ken Aikin, Raul Alvarez, Jane August, Sunil Baider, Megan Bela, Ilann Bourgeois, Alan Brewer, Charles Brock, Steve Brown, Steve Ciciora, Matt Coggon, Zachary Decker, Frank Erdesz, Ale Franchin, Gregory Frost, Karl Froyd, Ru-Shan Gao, Sara Gibbons, Jessica Gilman, Georgios Gkatzelis, Maxwell Holloway, Joseph Katich, Aaron Lamplugh, Andy Langford, Richard Marchbanks, Brian McDonald, Richard McLaughlin, Ann Middlebrook, Macy Morgan, Daniel Murphy, Andy Neuman, Jeff Peischl, Derek Price, Catherine Rasco, Pamela Rickly, James Roberts, Michael Robinson, Andrew Rollins, Scott Sandberg, Paul Schroeder, Rebecca Schwantes, Joshua Schwarz, Christoph Senff, Kyra Slovacek, Troy Thornberry, Michael Trainer, Patrick Veres, Nicholas Wagner, Siyuan Wang, Carsten Warneke, Rebecca Washenfelder, Laurel Watts, Catherine Weable, Ann Weickmann, Carrie Womack, Michael Zucker , NASA Group Achievement Award for outstanding scientific achievements of the Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments Experiement - Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) airborne Earth science mission team.
Banerjee, A., J.C. Fyfe, L.M. Polvani, D. Waugh, and K.-L. Chang, A pause in Southern Hemisphere circulation trends due to the Montreal Protocol, Nature, doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2120-4, 2020. 10 Remarkable Discoveries from 2020 in Nature. Read More
Brian McDonald, NOAA Silver Sherman Award for donating his Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers to enable NOAA and its partners to collect more aircraft measurements of air pollution in northeast U.S. cities during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. His selfless act of scientific leadership significantly increased the available observations, improving understanding of the air quality impacts from the pandemic's social and economic disruption. Read More
Carsten Warneke, CIRES Outstanding Performance Award in Science and Engineering for outstanding work as a leader of the large-scale field mission Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) and the research-focused activities that preceded it over the past half-decade. He developed the FireLab 2016 study that resulted in novel research and was the basis for many of the FIREX-AQ experiments. His laboratory results combined with field observations helped to close gaps in scientific knowledge, like the connection between fuels and atmospheric chemistry. These accomplishments are helping advance fire science not only nationally, but around the globe. Read More
Eric Ray, Pengfei Yu, Ben R. Miller (GMD), Carolina Siso (GMD), Debra Mondeel (GMD), Fred Moore (GMD), Geoff S. Dutton (GMD), J. David Nance (GMD), Lei Hu (GMD), CIRES Gold Medal for discovering the recent production and release of CFC-11, indicating a major violation of the Montreal Protocol.
James H. Churnside, NOAA Distinguished Career Award for developing and implementing novel laser techniques for remotely measuring properties of the atmosphere and ocean. Read More
James Roberts, Charles Brock, RuShan Gao, Joshua Schwarz, Andrew Rollins, Steven Ciciora, Patrick Veres, Jessica Gilman, Steven Brown, Ann Middlebrook, William A. Brewer, Scott Sandberg, Michael Trainer, Rebecca Washenfelder, Thomas Ryerson, Angela Nyul, Jane August, Catherine Weable, Samantha Middel, NOAA Administrator's Award for the planning and conduct of the largest interdisciplinary research project ever to study wildfire smoke composition, chemistry, and evolution. Read More
John Daniel, NOAA Boulder Outreach Coordinating Committee Gold Star Award for their help with virtual ourtreach with NCAR/UCAR Leadership Team. Read More
Joshua Schwarz, Jim Roberts, Jessica Gilman, Steve Brown, Rebecca Washenfelder, Ann Middlebrook, Alan Brewer, Kenneth Mooney, Mitch Goldberg (NESDIS), NOAA Bronze Medal for outstanding execution of the FIREX-AQ mission, a joint venture with NASA to improve understanding of air quality and climate impacts of fires. Read More
Kai-Lan Chang, Owen Cooper, Audrey Gaudel, Irina Petropavlovskikh (GMD), CIRES Outstanding Performance Award in Science and Engineering for initiating the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR), a research activity in the framework of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) project. TOAR a) produced the first tropospheric ozone assessment report based on the peer-reviewed literature and new analyses, and b) generated easily accessible data on ozone exposure and dose metrics at hundreds of measurement sites around the world, helping with research on the global-scale impact of ozone on climate, human health and crop/ecosystem productivity. The team's work has resulted in many high-impact publications and has greatly improved our knowledge of tropospheric ozone trends as it relates to climate change and health impacts. Read More
Kenneth Jamieson, NOAA Silver Sherman Award for outstanding support of Information Technology (IT) services within the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL). Mr. Jamieson routinely goes above and beyond his normal work requirements and exercises leadership to ensure that CSL has a secure network environment and stable operating system platforms for researchers and administrators. His successful implementation of IT system policies and procedures is deeply appreciated by CSL staff. Read More
Laurel Watts, Rich McLaughlin, Troy Thornberry, Hagen Telg (GML), CIRES Technology Transfer Award for creating a unique instrument to measure atmospheric particles and helping a small company successfully commercialize it to yield $1M+ in sales. Read More
Matt Coggon, NOAA Boulder Outreach Coordinating Committee Gold Star Award for their help with virtual 8th Grade Science Days. Read More
McDuffie, E.E., D.L. Fibiger, W.P. Dube, F. Lopez-Hilfiker, B.H. Lee, J.A. Thornton, V. Shah, L. Jaegle, H. Guo, R.J. Weber, J.M. Reeves, A.J. Weinheimer, J.C. Schroder, P. Campuzano-Jost, J.L. Jimenez, J.E. Dibb, P. Veres, C. Ebben, T.L. Sparks, P.J. Wooldridge, R.C. Cohen, R.S. Hornbrook, E.C. Apel, T. Campos, S.R. Hall, K. Ullmann, and S.S. Brown, Heterogeneous N2O5 uptake during winter: Aircraft measurements during the 2015 WINTER campaign and critical evaluation of current parameterizations, doi:10.1002/2018JD028336, 2018. Top 5 most highly cited JGR Atmospheres articles kicking off 2020 (listed twice).
Patrick Veres, NOAA OAR Employee of the Year for Personal and Professional Excellence for pioneering work to redefine the atmospheric chemistry of the marine sulfur cycle and its role in Earth's climate system. Read More
Peischl, J., S.J. Eilerman, J.A. Neuman, K.C. Aikin, J. de Gouw, J.B. Gilman, S.C. Herndon, R. Nadkarni, M. Trainer, C. Warneke, and T.B. Ryerson, Quantifying methane and ethane emissions to the atmosphere from central and western U.S. oil and natural gas production regions, Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, doi:10.1029/2018JD028622, 2018. Top 10% downloaded in recent publication history. Among work published between January 2018 and December 2019, this article received some of the most downloads in the 12 months following online publication. This research generated immediate impact and helped to raise the visibility of Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres.
Ru-Shan Gao, Steven Ciciora, NOAA Technology Transfer Award for creating a unique instrument to measure atmospheric particles and helping a small company successfully commercialize it to yield $1M+ in sales. Read More
Sara Gibbons, NOAA Boulder Outreach Coordinating Committee Gold Star Award for their help with outreach support for AGU. Read More
Schroder, J.C., P. Campuzano-Jost, D.A. Day, V. Shah, K. Larson, J.M. Sommers, A.P. Sullivan, T. Campos, J.M. Reeves, A.J. Hills, R.S. Hornbrook, N.J. Blake, E. Scheuer, H. Guo, D.L. Fibiger, E.E. McDuffie, P.L. Hayes, R.J. Weber, J.E. Dibb, E.C. Apel, L. Jaegle, S.S. Brown, J.A. Thornton, and J.L. Jimenez, Sources and secondary production of organic aerosols in the northeastern US during WINTER, doi:10.1029/2018JD028475, 2018. Top 5 most highly cited JGR Atmospheres articles kicking off 2020.
Stephen A. Montzka (GML), Robert W. Portmann, Bradley D. Hall (GML), James W. Elkins (GML), John S. Daniel, NOAA Gold Medal for discovering the recent production and release of CFC-11, indicating a major violation of the Montreal Protocol.
Womack, C.C., E.E. McDuffie, P.M. Edwards, R. Bares, J.A. de Gouw, K.S. Docherty, W.P. Dube, D.L. Fibiger, A. Franchin, J.B. Gilman, L. Goldberger, B.H. Lee, J.C. Lin, R. Long, A.M. Middlebrook, D.B. Millet, A. Moravek, J.G. Murphy, P.K. Quinn, T.P. Riedel, J.M. Roberts, J.A. Thornton, L.C. Valin, P.R. Veres, A.R. Whitehill, R.J. Wild, C. Warneke, B. Yuan, M. Baasandorj, and S.S. Brown, An odd oxygen framework for wintertime ammonium nitrate aerosol pollution in urban areas: NOx and VOC control as mitigation strategies, Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2019GL082028, 2019. Top 10% downloaded in recent publication history. Among work published between January 2018 and December 2019, this article received some of the most downloads in the 12 months following online publication. This research generated immediate impact and helped to raise the visibility of Geophysical Research Letters.
Yu, P., K.D. Froyd, R.W. Portmann, O.B. Toon, S.R. Freitas, C.G. Bardeen, C. Brock, T. Fan, R.-S. Gao, J.M. Katich, A. Kupc, S. Liu, C. Maloney, D.M. Murphy, K.H. Rosenlof, G. Schill, J.P. Schwarz, and C. Williamson, Efficient in-cloud removal of aerosols by deep convection, Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2018GL080544, 2019. Top 10% downloaded in recent publication history. Among work published between January 2018 and December 2019, this article received some of the most downloads in the 12 months following online publication. This research generated immediate impact and helped to raise the visibility of Geophysical Research Letters.

2019

Brian MacDonald, U.S. Executive Office of the President (EOP) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for elegant work to understand the sources of atmospheric pollutants that contribute to poor air quality and impact climate. Read More
Caroline Womack, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Science and Engineering for tackling a series of diverse, complex experimental and scientific challenges. The resulting advances are foundational and will ultimately provide the NOAA / CIRES community with new experimental methods and new ways of thinking about future research. Read More
Catherine Weable, NOAA Silver Sherman Award for outstanding support of the Foreign National Guest (FNG) program within the ESRL Chemical Sciences Division. Ms. Weable went above and beyond her normal work requirements and demonstrated leadership by working closely with the Office of Security and by guiding CSD sponsors and Guests in meeting all requirements of the Foreign National Guest program. Her successful leadership in managing the FNG process has improved CSD morale. Read More
Christina Williamson, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Science and Engineering for exhibiting sustained scientific and engineering excellence while passionately pursuing a scientific vision involving improving, modifying, and calibrating a set of unique instruments to measure the size and number of newly formed atmospheric nano-particles. Read More
Daniel M. Murphy, System and Methodology for Expressing Ion Path in a Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometer Patent US 10438788 B2. A system for expressing an ion path in a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer. The present invention uses two succes_sive curved sectors, with the second one reversed, to form S-shaped configuration such that an output ion beam is parallel to an input ion beam, such that the ions makes two identical but opposed turns, and such that the geometry of the entire system folds into a very compact volume. Geom_etry of a TOF mass spectrometer system in accordance with embodiments of the present invention further includes straight drift regions positioned before and after the S-shaped configuration and, optionally, a short straight region positioned between the two curved sectors with total length equal to about the length of the central arc of both curved sectors.
Drew Rollins, U.S. Executive Office of the President (EOP) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for significant contribution to the scientific community through his leadership of an international intercomparison of water vapor instruments that resolved decades-long discrepancies among different techniques. Read More
Eric Ray, CO-LABS Governor's Award for High-Impact Research for Manifestation Mastery with Geoff Dutton (GMD) and Steve Montzka (GMD) for discovering a major violation of the most successful international treaty, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Read More
Eric Ray and Pengfei Yu, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Science and Engineering with Geoff Dutton (GMD), Lei Hu (GMD), Ben Miller (GMD), Debra Mondeel (GMD), Fred Moore (GMD), David Nance (GMD), and Carolina Siso (GMD) for providing the analytical and interpretive foundations of a paper that has identified substantial unreported emissions of trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11), a major ozone-depleting substance. Read More
Fabian Hoffmann, University of Colorado Boulder Office of Postdoctoral Affairs Outstanding Postdoc Award
Gabriela Adler, Nicholas L. Wagner, Kara D. Lamb, Katherine M. Manfred, Joshua P. Schwarz, Alessandro Franchin, Ann M. Middlebrook, Rebecca A. Washenfelder, Caroline C. Womack, Robert J. Yokelson, and Daniel M. Murphy, Evidence in biomass burning smoke for a light-absorbing aerosol with properties intermediate between brown and black carbon, Aerosol Science and Technology, doi:10.1080/02786826.2019.1617832, 2019. Top 10 most downloaded AS&T articles published 2019 as #9.
Ilann Bourgeois, French Academy of Sciences Grand Prix Pierre et Cyril Grivet for his doctoral work on environmental nitrogen saturation in the French Alps. This national award recognizes exceptional work from a young scientist addressing biosphere-atmosphere interactions.
Jan Kazil, American Meteorological Association member Committee on Cloud Physics Read More
Joshua Schwarz, NOAA OAR Employee of the Year for outstanding leadership in planning and executing the FIREX-AQ airborne study. Read More
Owen Cooper, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) core member Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) on Reactive Gases Read More
Raul Alvarez, Sunil Baidar, Andrew Langford, Brandi McCarty, Christoph Senff, Michael Zucker, NASA Group Achievement Award with the Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet) team for the development and implementation of a network of tropospheric ozone lidars to measure time series of vertical profiles of atmospheric ozone for air quality studies.
Robert Banta, NOAA Distinguished Career Award for developing and advancing atmospheric lidar observations that improved weather forecast models and our understanding of boundary layer processes. Read More

2018

Alvarez, R.A., D. Zavala-Araiza, D.R. Lyon, D.T. Allen, Z.R. Barkley, A.R. Brandt, K.J. Davis, S.C. Herndon, D.J. Jacob, A. Karion, E.A. Kort, B.K. Lamb, T. Lauvaux, J.D. Maasakkers, A.J. Marchese, M. Omara, S.W. Pacala, J. Peischl, A.L. Robinson, P.B. Shepson, C. Sweeney, A. Townsend-Small, S.C. Wofsy, and S.P. Hamburg, Assessment of methane emissions from the U.S. oil and gas supply chain, Science, 10.1126/science.aar7204, 2018. Almetric scored top climate papers of 2018 as #14 of 25 most featured climate papers in the media. Read More
Andy Neuman and Richard McLaughlin, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Science and Engineering with federal colleague Patrick Veres, for first identifying the atmospheric chemistry need: a sophisticated new instrument and a 'ride' for it to help scientists fill in gaps in our understanding of the chemistry of the global atmosphere. The team successfully advocated for the new instrument in 2015, obtaining funds to obtain a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Then they found it a ride, on NASA's Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission. In record time, they ruggedized and integrated the instrument into the aircraft, meeting stringent weight, configuration, and power requirements. Among many critical innovations: Newman and McLaughlin innovated an inlet and sampling scheme that provided a constant sample mass ow with extraordinary pressure stability. The CIMS data are of particular interest to those studying the oxidation chemistry that determines the lifetimes of ozone and methane in the atmosphere - with implications for climate and air quality. Read More
Brandi McCarty, BLDC Unsung Heroes Project Award for her vision and support of CSD's monthly birthday social.
Brian McDonald, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Science and Engineering for cutting-edge work to improve scientific understanding of how human activities affect air quality. McDonald's inventory development and analyses have improved the way scientists and policy makers consider impacts of various sources of pollutants. His nominated research included assessments of nitrogen oxide emissions in a Utah oil and gas basin, and volatile organic compound emissions in the Los Angeles region. In both areas, he has been able to elegantly combine emissions estimates, atmospheric observations, and models to provide insight into air quality challenges with important human health considerations. McDonald's work has also inspired new fields of research. He finds, for example, that indoor emissions (eg, from consumer products) can have substantial effects on outdoor particulate matter levels; that discovery is inspiring new lines of research at NOAA and beyond. Read More
Brian McDonald, Jessica Gilman, Joost de Gouw (CU), Carsten Warneke, Matthew Coggon, CO-LABS Governor's Award for High-Impact Research Honorable Mention for Consumer Products' Emissions - Pioneering work on growing emissions from consumer products improves scientific understanding of air pollution and benefits environmental regulation policy. Read More
Carsten Warneke, Brian McDonald, Matthew Coggon, Jessica Gilman, CIRES IRP Grant for 'Do people or forests emit more monoterpenes? Detection of monoterpene emissions from volatile chemical products in urban areas' Read More
Daniel M. Murphy, System and Methodology for Expressing Ion Path in a Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometer Patent US 9761431. A system for expressing an ion path in a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer. Geometry of a TOF mass spectrometer system in accordance with embodiments of the invention includes straight drift regions positioned before and after the S-shaped configuration and, optionally, a short straight region positioned between the two curved sectors with total length equal to about the length of the central arc of both curved sectors.
David Fahey, University of Wisconsin - Madison honorary doctorate Read More
Debra Daily-Fisher, NOAA Silver Sherman Award for her outstanding sustained support of outreach and communication initiatives in the ESRL Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSD). Ms. Dailey-Fisher contributions have shaped CSD's scientific and professional culture through a wide variety of outreach activities. Her technical support of assessments of the ozone layer for the UN Environment Programme has improved communication to the world of this important issue. Read More
James B. Burkholder, NOAA Distinguished Career Award for sustained contributions in conducting studies of atmospheric chemical processes at the atomic and molecular level to provide fundamental information about how human activities influence important societal issues. Read More
Jessica Gilman, NOAA OAR Employee of the Year for Personal and Professional Excellence for outstanding innovation in measurements and understanding of atmospheric volatile organic compounds, enabling a software breakthrough that transformed atmospheric compositional analysis using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, and for public outreach and mentoring of young scientists. Read More
Joost de Gouw and Barbara Ervens, French president Emmanuel Macron's 'Make Our Planet Great Again' Climate Science initiative Grant Read More
Kara Lamb, The Flame Challenge Written Category Finalist for explaining climate and science to an 11-year-old. Read More
Liu, X., L.G. Huey, R.J. Yokelson, V. Selimovic, I.J. Simpson, M. Mueller, J.L. Jimenez, P. Campuzano-Jost, A.J. Beyersdorf, D.R. Blake, Z. Butterfield, Y. Choi, J.D. Crounse, D.A. Day, G.S. Diskin, M.K. Dubey, E. Fortner, T.F. Hanisco, W. Hu, L.E. King, L. Kleinman, S. Meinardi, T. Mikoviny, T.B. Onasch, B.B. Palm, J. Peischl, I.B. Pollack, T.B. Ryerson, G.W. Sachse, A.J. Sedlacek, J.E. Shilling, S. Springston, J.M. St. Clair, D.J. Tanner, A.P. Teng, P.O. Wennberg, A. Wisthaler, and G.M. Wolfe, Airborne measurements of western U.S. wildfire emissions: Comparison with prescribed burning and air quality implications, Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, doi:10.1002/2016JD026315, 2017. Top 10 most downloaded in recent publication history. Amongst articles published between 2016-2017, this article received some of the highest downloads in the 12 months post online publication. This research generated immediate impact and helped to raise the visibility of Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres.
Peischl, J., A. Karion, C. Sweeney, E.A. Kort, M.L. Smith, A.R. Brandt, T. Yeskoo, K.C. Aikin, S.A. Conley, A. Gvakharia, M. Trainer, S. Wolter, and T.B. Ryerson, Quantifying atmospheric methane emissions from oil and natural gas production in the Bakken shale region of North Dakota, Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, doi:10.1002/2015JD024631, 2016. Top 10 most downloaded in recent publication history. Among work published between January 2016 and December 2017, this article received some of the most downloads in the 12 months following online publication. This research generated immediate impact and helped to raise the visibility of Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres.
Peischl, J., A. Karion, C. Sweeney, E.A. Kort, M.L. Smith, A.R. Brandt, T. Yeskoo, K.C. Aikin, S.A. Conley, A. Gvakharia, M. Trainer, S. Wolter, and T.B. Ryerson, Quantifying atmospheric methane emissions from oil and natural gas production in the Bakken shale region of North Dakota, Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, doi:10.1002/2015JD024631, 2016. Top 10% downloaded in recent publication history. Amongst articles published between 2016-2017, this article received some of the highest downloads in the 12 months post online publication. This research generated immediate impact and helped to raise the visibility of Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres.
Pengfei Yu, Forbes China '30 under 30' list of 30 elites under the age of 30 in 20 different fields, as a young scholar in science and technology that will begin a research position at the Institute for Environment and Climate Research at China's Jinan University. Read More
Steve Brown, NOAA Bronze Medal for conceiving, organizing, and leading an airborne field project that delivered time-critical information on a major air quality problem in the West. Read More
Steve Brown, Measurement of Total Reactive Nitrogen NOy, Together with NO2, NO, and O3, Via Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy Patent US 9804138. A sensitive, compact detector measures total reactive nitrogen (NOy), as well as NO2, NO, and O3. The precision and accuracy of this instrument make it a versatile alternative to standard chemiluminescence-based NOy instruments.
Sunil Baidar, Alan Brewer, Paul Schroeder, CIRES IRP Grant for 'Demonstration of high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) measurements of aerosols and clouds using a coherent Doppler wind lidar' Read More
Wayne Angevine, Timothy Bonin, Aditya Choukulkar, Yelena Pichugina, CIRES Technology Transfer Award with Laura Bianco, Irina Djalalova, Jeffrey Hamilton, Ming Hu, Eric James, Jaymes Kenyon, Terra Ladwig, Joseph Olson, Kathleen Lantz, Chuck Long, Katherine McCaffrey, Tanya Smirnova, and federal colleagues, for improving forecasts of turbine-height winds and solar irradiance from the HRRR weather model to improve usage of renewable power by industry in summer 2017. Read More
Zachary Decker, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting Outstanding Student Presentation Award for poster presentation 'Nighttime Aircraft Intercepts of Biomass Burning Plumes: Observations and Box Model Analysis'. Read More

2017

A.R. Ravishankara, Ozone Awards program (managed under the auspices of the Ozone Secretariat of the Montreal Protocol) Scientific Leadership Award Read More
Andrew Rollins and Joshua (Shuka) Schwarz, CIRES IRP Grant for 'Direct spectroscopic detection of tropospheric chlorine radicals' Read More
Anne Perring, U.S. Executive Office of the President (EOP) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) 2014 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for pioneering work in the development and application of new atmospheric measurement techniques for the study of black carbon and bioaerosols. Read More
Daniel M. Murphy, System and methodology for expressing ion path in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer Patent US 9761431 B2. A system for expressing an ion path in a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer. The present invention uses two successive curved sectors, with the second one reversed, to form S-shaped configuration such that an output ion beam is parallel to an input ion beam, such that the ions makes two identical but opposed turns, and such that the geometry of the entire system folds into a very compact volume. Geometry of a TOF mass spectrometer system in accordance with embodiments of the present invention further includes straight drift regions positioned before and after the S-shaped configuration and, optionally, a short straight region positioned between the two curved sectors with total length equal to about the length of the central arc of both curved sectors.
Daniel M. Murphy, Timothy D. Gordon, System and method for measuring aerosol or trace species Patent US 9709491 B1. A system for measuring trace species in a sample gas, including a laser source for emitting continuous wave laser beam; an optical isolator for allowing transmission of the laser beam in one direction; multiple mirrors for directing the laser beam into an optical cavity; and an open-path chamber to measure extinction of highly humidified and/or coarse aerosol. This novel open-path design isolates the optical cavity from wind and rain while still providing a clear path for the aerosol to travel through the optical cavity for measurement.
Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) EEO Laboratory of the Year for the combined efforts of all ESRL divisions.
Edwards, P.M., S.S. Brown, J.M. Roberts, R. Ahmadov, R. Banta, J. de Gouw, W.P. Dube, R.A. Field, J. Flynn, J. Gilman, M. Graus, D. Helmig, A. Koss, A.O. Langford, B. Lefer, B. Lerner, R. Li, S.-M. Li, S. McKeen, S. Murphy, D. Parrish, C.J. Senff, J. Soltis, J. Stutz, C. Sweeney, C. Thompson, M.K. Trainer, C. Tsai, P. Veres, R.A. Washenfelder, C. Warneke, R.J. Wild, C.J. Young, B. Yuan, and R. Zamora, High winter ozone pollution from carbonyl photolysis in an oil and gas basin, Nature, 10.1038/nature13767, 2014. NOAA OAR Outstanding Scientific Paper Award Read More
Erin McDuffie, CIRES Graduate Student Research Award for the topic 'The Role of Heterogeneous Chemistry in Understanding Wintertime Air Pollution' (advisor Steve Brown) Read More
John Daniel, David Fahey, Ozone Awards program (managed under the auspices of the Ozone Secretariat of the Montreal Protocol) Scientific Leadership Award as part of Guus Velders' Team. Read More
Joost de Gouw, Clarivate Analytics most highly cited researchers in the Geosciences 2017 Read More
Murphy, D.M., The effects of molecular weight and thermal decomposition on the sensitivity of a thermal desorption aerosol mass spectrometer, Aerosol Science and Technology, doi:110.1080/02786826.2015.1136403, 2016. 1 of 10 Notable Papers chosen by the AST Editorial Advisory Board Read More
Murphy, D.M., H. Telg, T.F. Eck, J. Rodriguez, S.E. Stalin, and T.S. Bates, A miniature scanning sun photometer for vertical profiles and mobile platforms, Aerosol Science and Technology, doi:10.1080/02786826.2015.1121200, 2016. AST Editors' Most Recently Chosen Notable Papers Read More
Peischl, J., T.B. Ryerson, K.C. Aikin, J.A. de Gouw, J.B. Gilman, J.S. Holloway, B.M. Lerner, R. Nadkarni, J.A. Neuman, J.B. Nowak, M. Trainer, C. Warneke, and D.D. Parrish, Quantifying atmospheric methane emissions from the Haynesville, Fayetteville, and Northeastern Marcellus shale natural gas production regions, Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, doi:10.1002/2014JD022697, 2015. Top most highly cited JGR Atmospheres papers in the 2015-2016 timeframe. Highlighted in the recent Environmental Sciences quarterly newsletter update from AGU Publications.
R. Michael Hardesty, International Coordination-group for Laser Atmospheric Studies (ICLAS) Lifetime Achievement Award for 'sustained outstanding and innovative achievements in the areas of lidar techniques, technologies, and observations.'
Raul Alvarez, NOAA Silver Sherman Award for his outstanding efforts to support laboratory and mobile lidar systems in the ESRL Chemical Sciences Division. As he demonstrated in a recent field mission to study high surface ozone values in central California, he is an expert in keeping state-of-the-art laser systems running continuously under challenging field conditions and coordinating multiple laser systems and investigators. Read More
Richard McLaughlin, CIRES Award for design of an elegant airborne chemical inlet that has provided a major advance for atmospheric science by improving the ability to sample reliably from high-altitude research aircraft. The real-world effectiveness of this inlet design has been recently proven during the ongoing global-scale ATom-2 mission, and has been adopted by the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center as their new de facto standard inlet for trace gas sampling aboard the DC-8 aircraft. Read More
Robert Banta, NOAA Technology Transfer Award with Melinda Marquis, Curtis Alexander, Stan Benjamin, John M. Brown, James Wilczak, Allison McComiskey, and CIRES colleagues, for improving forecasts of turbine-height winds and solar irradiance from their HRRR weather model to improve usage of renewable power by industry. Read More
Ru-Shan Gao, Shang Liu, Troy Thornberry, Steve Ciciora, Andrew Rollins, Laurel Watts, Stephanie Evan, Karen Rosenlof, Cathy Burgdorf Rasco, Debra Dailey-Fisher, Annie Davis, Richard McLaughlin, Eric Ray, NASA Group Achievement Award for outstanding achievements of the Pacific Oxidants, Sulfur, Ice, Dehydration, and cONvection (POSIDON) Airborne Earth Science Mission Team.

2016

Abigail Koss, DSRC Visits and Employee Engagement Group Gold Star Certificate for working with the Earth Explorers.
Alan Gorchov-Negron, NOAA Science and Education Symposium Student Scholarship Presentation Award for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation presentation on 'Fugitive Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Production and Use'. Alan is a Hollings Undergraduate Scholar. Read More
Andrew Rollins, Troy Thornberry, Laurel Watts, and Rich McLaughlin, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Science and Engineering for developing a new laser-based instrument to measure SO2 at extremely low mixing ratios relevant to the stratosphere. The instrument, built and deployed in record time, will enable better understanding of atmospheric sulfur chemistry and transport, which is critical to understanding the stratospheric aerosol layer, including impacts from geoengineering. The new instrument's detection limit is 50-fold better than previous technologies and it is already is allowing investigation of science ques-tions previously impossible to tackle. This project grew out of a 2013 CIRES Innovative Research Project. Read More
Anna Lynn, NOAA Science and Education Symposium Student Scholarship Presentation Award for Science and Technology Enterprise presentation 'Development of Calibration System for Hydrocarbons Emitted from Biomass Burning'. Anna is a Hollings Undergraduate Scholar. Read More
Birgit Hassler, International Ozone Commission (IO3C) Dobson Award for Young Scientists for her outstanding research paper (Hassler, B., et al, Past changes in the vertical distribution of ozone - Part 1: Measurement techniques, uncertainties and availability, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, doi:10.5194/amt-7-1395-2014, 2014) in atmospheric sciences published or accepted in a refereed journal since the last Quadrennial Ozone Symposium (July 2000) by a young scientist (within 10 years of Ph.D). This award recognizes her leadership as first author of a paper describing past changes in the vertical distribution of ozone. She has provided the community with an essential foundation for reliable detection of stratospheric ozone recovery in coming decades. Read More
Brian Lerner, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Science and Engineering for developing one of the world's quickest and most automated systems to analyze whole air samples by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Brian developed a four-device package that includes sampling, analysis and interface, GC-MS, and cannister cleaning, and he also built efficient software to greatly improve speed of data analysis. Brian's improvements now allow routine analysis of field samples within 36 hours, greatly expanding his team's analytical capabilities and ability to address important science topics such as the emissions of organic gases from oil and natural gas operations. Other groups around the world are looking to use some of Brian's techniques in their own systems. Read More
Caroline Womack, DOC Boulder Laboratories Postdoctoral Poster Symposium Outstanding Presentation Award for her poster 'Characterizing Interferences in an NOy Thermal Dissociation Inlet' [coauthored by Andy Neuman, Patrick Veres, Chuck Brock, Scott Eilerman, Kyle Zarzana, Bill Dube and Steven Brown] Carrie is an NRC Postdocotral Affiliate.
Carsten Warneke, Joost de Gouw, Brian Lerner, and Abigail Koss, CIRES IRP Grant for 'Are there diamonds in the sky? Detection of diamondoid and other large hydrocarbons in the atmosphere' Read More
Cathy Burgdorf Rasco, Richard Tisinai, Gabi Accatino, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Service for innovative and high-impact IT design and development in support of the 2015 CSD Review. Read More
Debra Dailey-Fisher, NOAA OAR EEO Award for Exemplary Service
Erik Larson, International Global Atmoshperic Chemistry (IGAC) Early Career Poster Presentation Award for 'CMIP5 Estimate of Earth's Energy Budget' at the 14th IGAC Project Science Conference in Session 5, Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Change. Read More
Erin McDuffie, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting Outstanding Student Presentation Award for 'The Wintertime Fate of N2O5: Observations and Box Model Analysis for the 2015 WINTER Aircraft Campaign'.
Jane August, Colorado Federal Executive Board Wonderful Outstanding Worker (WOW) for 8 years of administrative support to NOAA's Tropospheric Chemistry and Regional Chemical Modeling Groups. Read More
Jim Roberts, NOAA Gold Medal for Leadership for leading three field studies that revealed the cause of high-ozone episodes in Utah's oil and gas fields and led to effective new regulations (winters of 2012, 2013, 2014). Read More
Kara Lamb, DSRC Visits and Employee Engagement Group Gold Star Certificate for working with the Earth Explorers.
Karen Rosenlof, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Yoram J. Kaufman Unselfish Cooperation in Research Award for broad influence in atmospheric science through exceptional creativity, inspiration of younger scientists, mentoring, international collaborations, and unselfish cooperation in research. Read More
Michael Trainer, NOAA Distinguished Career Award for developing a powerful strategy to use NOAA aircraft to advance our scientific understanding of pollution sources that cause poor air quality. Read More
Raul Alvarez, Alan Brewer, Robert Banta, Aditya Choukulkar, Mike Hardesty, John Holloway, Gerhard Hubler, Guillaume Kirgis, Andrew Langford, Thomas Ryerson, Scott Sandberg, Christoph Senff, Ann Weickmann, NASA Group Achievement Award for outstanding achievement during the Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality (DISCOVER-AQ) mission conducting airborne studies to improve the diagnosis of near-surface air quality from space.
Sara Sand, DOC Boulder Laboratories Postdoctoral Poster Symposium Outstanding Presentation Award for her poster 'Evaluation of the Wind Flow Variability Using Scanning Doppler Lidar Measurements' [coauthored by Yelena Pichugina and Alan Brewer] Sara is an Undergraduate Affiliate.
Steven Ciciora, NOAA OAR Employee of the Year for his outstanding innovation and hardware engineering in developing a new control and data system for a new generation of aerosol detector resulting in reduced size, weight and cost of the Printed Optical Particle Spectrometer (POPS) while improving performance and adding additional features. Read More
Stu McKeen and Greg Frost, Elsevier / Atmospheric Environment Haagen-Smit Prize with Georg Grell (GSD) for their paper (Grell, GA; SE Peckham; R Schmitz; SA McKeen; G Frost; WC Skamarock; B Eder: Fully coupled 'online' chemistry within the WRF model, Atmospheric Environment, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.04.027, 2005) in recognition of its overwhelming contribution to our understanding of atmospheric processes that link air pollution emissions to air quality and ultimately human health. Prior to the advent of WRF-Chem, atmospheric models of meteorology and atmospheric models of transport and transformation of air pollutants had a one-way linkage in that the meteorological information was fed into the chemical transport models but the chemical transport models were assumed not to substantially influence meteorology. We now know that this one-way linkage is not always a reasonable approximation. WRF-Chem was the first widely available, public-domain model to encompass a two-way linkage between meteorology and pollutant transport and transformation. It is widely used by the air pollutant and climate change communities to understand the relationships between air pollutant emissions, meteorology and air pollutant concentrations in urban and regional settings. As a result, it has had a tremendous impact on the atmospheric environment community. Read More
West, J.J., A. Cohen, F. Dentener, B. Brunekreef, T. Zhu, B. Armstrong, M.L. Bell, M. Brauer, G. Carmichael, D.L. Costa, D.W. Dockery, M. Kleeman, M. Krzyzanowski, N. Kunzli, C. Liousse, S.C.C. Lung, R.V. Martin, U. Poschl, C.A. Pope III, J.M. Roberts, A.G. Russell, and C. Wiedinmyer, What we breathe impacts our health: improving understanding of the link between air pollution and health, Environmental Science & Technology, doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b03827, 2016. ES&T May 17th issue cover feature Read More

2015

A.M. Middlebrook, Thompson Reuters most highly cited researchers in the Geosciences 2003-2013
A.R. Ravishankara, NOAA Distinguished Career Award for excellence in managing and providing scientific vision for NOAA's atmospheric research programs, and in leading international science and assessment.
Aitken, M.L., R.M. Banta, Y.L. Pichugina, and J.K. Lundquist, Quantifying Wind Turbine Wake Characteristics from Scanning Remote Sensor Data, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 10.1175/JTECH-D-13-00104.1, 2014. AMS Journals top 10 most read papers in the previous 12 months Read More
Angela Small, DOC Boulder Laboratories Postdoctoral Poster Symposium Outstanding Presentation Award for 'Effects of Atmospheric Pressure and Temperature on Ozone Lidar Retrievals' [coauthors Christoph Senff, Andy Langford, Guillaume Kirgis, and Raul Alvarez] Angela is an undergraduate.
Ann Weickmann, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Service for her work in developing innovative software and hardware solutions for data acquisition, processing, and control of lidar instrumentation. Read More
Bin Yuan, DOC Boulder Laboratories Postdoctoral Poster Symposium Outstanding Presentation Award for 'Secondary formation of Nitrophenols: Insights from Observations During the Uintah Basin Winter Ozone Study (UBWOS) 2014' [coauthors John Liggio, Jeremy Wentzell, Shao-Meng Li, Harald Stark, James Roberts, Jessica Gilman, Brian Lerner, Carsten Warneke, Rui Li, Amy Leithead, Hans Osthoff, Robert Wild, Steven Brown and Joost de Gouw].
Erin McDuffie, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting Outstanding Student Presentation Award for poster presentation 'Toward a Quantitative Assessment of the Influence of Regional Emission Sources on Ozone Production in the Colorado Front Range'. Read More
Erin McDuffie, CIRES Graduate Association Best Poster for 'Summertime Relationships Between NOx, NOy, and O3 in the Denver-Julesberg Basin' presented at the CIRES Rendezvous.
Graham Feingold and Franziska Glassmeier, CIRES IRP Grant for 'Network Theory to Understand Cloud Systems' Read More
Jeff Peischl, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Science and Engineering for his work measuring greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, and N2O) from airborne and ground-based mobile platforms, and for analyses to better understand the sources and implications of those emissions. Read More
Ru-Shan Gao, NOAA OAR Employee of the Year for outstanding innovations in the design, engineering, and construction of a new, lightweight, low-cost detector for studying atmospheric aerosols, the Printed Optical Particle Spectrometer, and using it on versatile aurborne platforms to achieve ground-breaking measurements in the atmosphere. Read More
Steven S. Brown, William P. Dube, Robert Wild, Measurement of Total Reactive Nitrogen, NOy, together with NO2, NO, and O3 via Cavity Ring-down Spectroscopy Patent US 20150377850 A1. A sensitive, compact detector measures total reactive nitrogen (NOy), as well as NO2, NO, and O3. In all channels, NO2 is directly detected by laser diode based cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) at 405 nm. Ambient O3 is converted to NO2 in excess NO for the O3 measurement channel. Likewise, ambient NO is converted to NO2 in excess O3. Ambient NOy is thermally dissociated at 700C to form NO2 or NO in a heated quartz inlet. Any NO present in ambient air or formed from thermal dissociation of other reactive nitrogen compounds is converted to NO2 in excess O3 after the thermal converter. The precision and accuracy of this instrument make it a versatile alternative to standard chemiluminescence-based NOy instruments.
Tak Yamaguchi, CIRES Outstanding Performance in Science and Engineering for his work on aerosol-cloud interactions and their impact on climate change. Read More
Zachary Finewax, CIRES Graduate Student Research Award for the topic 'Investigating Aerosol and VOC Products of Biomass Burning Emissions Through HR-CIMS and Thermal Desorption Particle Beam Mass Spectrometry (TD-PBMS)' (advisor Joost de Gouw) Read More

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