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UW-AOS/Meteorology alumni among 2019 NOAA award winners

May 2, 2019

Several UW-AOS/Meteorology alumni and connected scientists were among the 2019 NOAA Distinguished Career and Bronze Medal award winners. We extend our sincere congratulations to the following alumni!

Distinguished Career Award winners - The Distinguished Career Award honors contributions on a sustained basis and a body of work, rather than a single defined accomplishment. In addition, this award recognizes significant accomplishments across all NOAA program areas and functions that have resulted in long-term benefits to the bureau's mission and strategic goals. Nominations are listed below by occupational categories of achievement.

John M. Lewis (Former CIMSS scientist) - Distinguished Career Award - Scientific Achievement- Nominated by OAR for exemplary service as a brilliant scientist with extraordinary contributions to theoretical and applied research in atmospheric data assimilation and numerical weather prediction.

Dennis Keyser (M.S. 1981)- Distinguished Career Award - Scientific Achievement - Nominated by NWS for over thirty-two years of scientific and technical contributions towards the improvement of United States Weather, Water, and Climate Prediction.

Lans Rothfusz (Ph.D. 1982) - Distinguished Career Award - Mangement and Supervision - Nominated by OAR for leadership in improving NOAA services through more than 20 years of outstanding contributions in management positions in OAR and NWS.

Bronze Medal Award winners - The highest honor award granted by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, Bronze Medals recognize federal employees for superior performance and are awarded to individuals, groups (or teams), and organizations. Individuals and members of groups each receive a plaque signed by the Under Secretary. Organizations receive one plaque to represent the entire organization.

Boyin Huang (M.S. 1996, Ph.D. 2000) and Matthew Menne (B.S. 1988, Ph.D. 2005) along witih Patricia Viva Banzon, Tim Boyer, Jay Lawrimore, Thomas Smith and Russel Vose - Bronze Medal for Scientific/Engineering Achievement - "For innovation on sea surface temperature construction methods that enable improved El Niño structures and long-term record consistency."

Walter Wolf (M.S. 1993) and Jeff Key (NOAA/CIMSS scientist) along with Paul Chang, Ralph Ferraro, Xiwu Zhan, Limin Zhao, Kirk Liang, Steve Walters, Lihang Zhou and Jennifer Clapp - Bronze Medal for Scientific/Engineering Achievement - "For developing the operational GCOM-W1 AMSR2 products system."

Kathryn Mozer (M.S. 2010) along with Matthew Seybold and Wayne Mackenzie - Bronze Medal for Customer Service - "For expertly transitioning new state of the art satellite imagery, products, and procedures into operations from GOES-16 for user exploitation."

These esteemed award recipients will be honored at a ceremony on May 14th at NOAA’s Silver Spring headquarters.

Congratulations all!