News and Announcements
The latest news and announcements related to the Department of Atmospheric Science appear below. In addition to these items, the department periodically produces a newsletter designed to keep everyone informed about what is happening in the Atmospheric Science Department.. The College of Engineering also provides additional news and announcements.
May 11, 2012
Congratulations to the Spring 2012 Graduates.
Ashley Evanoski-Cole (MS) - Collett (continuing on to PhD)
Bradley Guy (PhD) - Rutledge
Anna Harper (PhD) - Denning
David Lerach (PhD) - Cotton
Adrian Loftus ( PhD) - Cotton
James Ruppert (MS) - Johnson (continuing on to PhD)
Adam Rydbeck (MS) - Maloney
Stephanie Slade (MS) - Maloney
April, 2012
Matt Christensen wins AGU Outstanding Student Paper Award.
Congratulations to Matt Christensen for winning an Outstanding Student Paper Award for his presentation at the 2011 Fall Meeting of the AGU. A summary of Matt's poster is shown below:
"Ocean going vessels produce dense plumes of aerosol and, under some conditions create distinct reflective cloud lines in satellite imagery, a manifestation, known as ship tracks. Using the radar on CloudSat, an analysis of several hundred ship tracks reveal that precipitation and liquid water amounts can be enhanced (28% of the cases) or diminished (72%) by increasing the concentration of aerosol. Precipitation and liquid water amount was found to increase in ship tracks relative to the surrounding clouds primarily when they were embedded in open cell stratocumulus clouds. The opposite was commonly observed in the closed cell regime. Thus, ship tracks provide striking evidence that aerosol can strongly affect the dynamics and microphysics of marine boundary layer clouds."
Well done on this outstanding achievement Matt.
For a large image click here
For the Power Point click here
April 12, 2012
Katie Benedict and Matt Igel win the Department Alumni and Riehl Awards
In a ceremony held at the department on 12 April 2012, Katie Benedict was awarded with The Alumni Award for outstanding research by a senior PhD student, and MattIgel received The Herbert Riehl Memorial Award for outstanding research by a senior MS or a junior PhD student. Katie received the Alumni Award for her paper “Cloud water composition over the Southeastern Pacific Ocean during the VOCALS Region Experiment" written together with Dr. Taehyoung Lee and Professor Jeff Collett. The Riehl Award was presented to Matt for his paper "Convective-Scale Responses of a Large-Domain, Modeled Tropical Environment to Surface Warming" written together with Professors Susan van den Heever, Graeme Stephens and Derek Posselt (U. Mich). Herbert RiehlJr was at the ceremony to present the award honoring his father, Professor Herbert Riehl, the founder of our department. Congratulations to Katie and Matt on these outstanding achievements.
 Alumni award winner Katie Benedict with Professor Jeff Collett. |
 Riehl award winner Matt Igel with Herbert Riehl Junior. |
April 12, 2012
An Unprecedented Three Atmospheric Science Students Win NSF Fellowships
Three atmospheric science students won National Science Foundation Fellowships this year. This is an unprecedented event in the history of the department. Congratulations to Nick Davis, Leah Grant and Elizabeth Thompson on this outstanding achievement, as well as to Chris Slocum who received an Honorable Mention.
Nick Davis will be working with Professor Thomas Birner to explore dynamical controls on the width of the tropical belt in order to characterize its seasonal cycle and assess observed and projected tropical widening. Leah Grant, advised by Professor Susan van den Heever will be studying the interactions and feedbacks amongst clouds and storm systems, aerosols, land surface process, and the carbon and water cycles through the use of a cloud-resolving model coupled to a biosphere model. Liz Thompson, together with her advisor Professor Steve Rutledge, will focus on identifying atmospheric and ocean processes that are responsible for initiation of the Madden Julian Oscillation in the equatorial Indian Ocean region.
March 2012
Professor Chris Kummerow was named a 2012 Fellow of the American Meteorological Society at the 92nd Annual AMS Meeting in New Orleans, LA., January 2012. Kummerow received the Fellow for his research into obtaining a better understanding of global and regional climate change through the use of spaceborne missions.
March 2012
Prof. Allen Robinson will join the CSU ATS faculty this fall. He will
hold a joint appointment between the Mechanical Engineering Department and
the Atmospheric Science Department.
Prof. Robinson's research focuses on understanding the emissions from combustion systems, their evolution in the atmosphere, and their impacts on health, clouds, and climate. He is one of the world's foremost experts on organic aerosols and their atmospheric evolution and partitioning.
Prof. Robinson earned his PhD in 1996 from UC Berkeley and is currently a Professor in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. You can learn more about his research here.
February 21, 2012
A recent article describing the contributions of Dr Herbert Riehl, founder of the department of atmospheric science here at CSU, has been published in BAMS. The article was written by John M. Lewis, Matthew G. Fearon, and Harold E. Klieforth and is titled "Herbert Riehl: Intrepid and Enigmatic Scholar". You can find this article in the Early Online Releases of BAMS or by clicking here.
February 8, 2012
I am pleased to announce Dr. Robert Adler as the 2012 winner of the Atmospheric Science Distinguished Alumnus award. Dr. Adler received his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from CSU in 1974. He joined NA SA/GSFC in 1974 where he had a successful and productive career for 34 years. He served as the Branch Head, Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Branch and was the Project Scientist for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Manager of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) for the World Climate Research Programme. He is one of the world's leaders in studies of remotely-sensed pr ecipitation.
Dr. Adler's research has focused on using satellite observations to study and understand atmospheric phenomena, especially atmospheric convective systems. Dr. Adler's group made major contributions to the GPCP. These data sets have become the community standard. The TRMM project has utilized similar procedures to produce multi-satellite products calibrated by TRMM under the direction of Dr. Adler. Since 2008 Dr. Adler has been at the University of Maryland in College Park where he continues research in climate analysis, global flood monitoring and satellite rain estimation.
Dr. Adler has served as Editor of the Journal of Applied Meteorology and as a member of the AMS Committee on Severe Local Storms. He served as Branch Head of the Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Branch at Goddard for approximately 10 years and is currently Coordinator for the GPCP. He is a Fellow of the AMS and, among many awards, has received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal-1989, the Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres Scientific Leadership Award-2002, and the NASA William Nordberg Award for Earth Science-2007. Dr. Adler has authored or co-authored more than 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
We are planning a visit by Dr. Adler during mid-April, when we will also be celebrating this year's recipients of the Riehl and Alumni student paper awards and Dr. Adler will be honored at a banquet with other distinguished alumni winners from the College of Engineering.
January 2012
Thomas Birner Wins NSF CAREER Award
Professor Thomas Birner has been selected as a recipient of an NSF CAREER award. His 5-year project is titled "Multiscale Dynamics of the Tropical Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere" and runs from February 2012 to January 2017. As stated in the award announcement, the NSF CAREER Program is "committed to promoting the role of teacher-scholars" and is made in recognition of Thomas' contributions to cutting edge research and developments in teaching. Congratulations Thomas on winning this prestigious award!
Shown below are Thomas Birner playing the role of Teisserenc de Bort, and Adam Pearlstein playing Richard Assmann during CMMAP course activity in 2011.
These two historical scientists played leading roles in the discovery
of the stratosphere around 1900. Birner used his participation as a pilot study for the educational component of the NSF CAREER award.
January 2012
50th Anniversary Reception in New Orleans, LA
CSU Atmospheric Science
ATS 50th Anniversary
Alumni and Friends Reception
During the 92nd AMS Annual Meeting
New Orleans, LA
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Jefferson Room at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel
5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Prospective students meet faculty
6:30 - 9:00 p.m. 50th Anniversary Celebration
with hors d'oeuvres, a hosted bar, and live music!
September 30, 2011
Sept. 30, 2011. Ezra Levin is named recipient of the 2nd annual Dietrich Scholarship. The Dietrich Scholarship is sponsored by Air Resource Specialists, Inc. and named in honor of David Dietrich, retired president of the company. The award recognizes outstanding study and research by an Atmospheric Science graduate student in the area of air quality. Ezra Levin is a PhD student working to characterize aerosol physical and optical properties in remote areas of the western U.S., including Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and th Manitou Experimental Forest, Colorado. Ezra's adviser is Prof. Sonia Kreidenweis.
From left to right; Jeff Collett (Department Head), Ezra Levin (scholarship recipient),
Joe Adlhoch (ARS President), and John Molenar (ARS)
September 9, 2011
Thomas Birner received the 2011 Outstanding Professor of the Year Award. The award was presented at the annual new student picnic. One recipient of the award is chosen by department students each year. Professors are selected for the award based on teaching excellence, including an ability to motivate and inspire students and for help provided in and out of the classroom.
Aug 2011:
Welcome to the new students arriving this month
- Kira Arnold PhD student, advised by Prof. Collett and Prof. Ham, from Kansas State University
- Nicholas Beavis MS student, advised by Prof. Rutledge, from Colorado State University
- Alexandra Boris MS student, advised by Prof. Collet, from Portland State University
- Michal Clavner PhD student, advised by Prof. Cotton, from Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Nicholas Davis MS student, advised by Prof. Birner, from University of Washington
- Christopher Eldred PhD student, advised by Prof. Randall, from University of Utah
- Kimberly Erickson MS student, advised by Prof. Vonder Haar and Prof. Kummerow, from Colorado State University
- Benjamin Foreback MS student, advised by Prof. Kummerow, from University of Utah
- Eliott Foust MS student, advised by Prof. Thompson, from North Carolina State University
- Brody Fuchs MS student, advised by Prof. Rutledge, from St. Cloud State University
- Nicholas Geyer MS student, advised by Prof. Denning, from Pennsylvania State University
- Leah Grant MS student, advised by Prof. van den Heever, from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
- Samantha Lynch MS student, advised by Prof. Schumacher, from Texas A&M
- Christina Mccluskey MS student, advised by Prof. Kreidenweis, from Coastal Carolina University
- Aaron Pina MS student, advised by Prof. Denning, from Texas A&M
- Ahmed Samman MS student, advised by Prof. Cotton, from King Abdulaziz University
- Christopher Slocum MS student, advised by Prof. Schubert and Prof. DeMaria, from Pennsylvania State University
- Vanessa Vincente MS student, advised by Prof. Schumacher, from Valparaiso University
- Brandon Wolding MS student, advised by Prof. Maloney, from University of Cape Town
- Charles Yost MS student, advised by Prof. Schumacher, from Louisiana State University
August 10, 2011
Prof. Russ Schumacher joins CSU Atmospheric Science as an Assistant Professor. It is a pleasure to welcome Russ Schumacher back to CSU, following an appointment as an Advanced Studies Program postdoc at NCAR and an appointment as an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M. Russ received a PhD from CSU in 2008. His expertise lies in the areas of mesoscale dynamics; mesoscale convective systems, with a focus on systems that produce extreme rainfall; effects of tropical cyclones on midlatitude precipitation systems; and societal impacts of weather.
August 5, 2011
Rebecca Selin-Adams, advised by Prof Dick Johnson, receives Best Oral Presentation Award at the AMS 14th Conference on Mesoscale Processes
CSU ATS graduate student Becky Selin-Adams was selected to receive one of the Best Oral Presentation Awards at the AMS 14th Conference on Mesoscale Processes. She recieved this award in recognition of her talk entitled, "Examination of atmospheric waves associated with 13 March 2003 bow echo".
