Atmospheric researchers from around the world gather in Boulder, Colo. May 15-17 for the 40th Global Monitoring Annual Conference, which takes place in the NOAA David Skaggs Research Center. Among them will be many CIRES scientists showcasing their world-class research on Earth's changing atmosphere, with a focus on trends affecting climate change, air pollution and ozone-layer depletion. Read more here.

Former CIRES Fellow and CU Boulder physics professor John Wahr has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, which recognizes scientists and engineers for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. "This is one of the highest honors a faculty member can receive, and we are proud to congratulate Professor Wahr," said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. Wahr was recognized for his groundbreaking work in theoretical geophysics and the use of satellite measurements to better understand Earth and monitor the planet's rotation, ocean tides, crustal deformation, and the depletion of water and ice stored in glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, soils, and aquifers. Read more here.

Adriana Raudzens Bailey, a CIRES graduate student, received the Outstanding Student Paper Award for her presentation at the 2011 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California. The honor, which was awarded by the AGU on behalf of the Atmospheric Sciences section, was for Bailey’s presentation “Isotopic signatures of mixing processes and cloud detrainment in the subtropics.”

To view the full abstract click here.

CIRES Fellows have approved nine research proposals as recipients of the 2012 Innovative Research Program (IRP) Awards.

The IRP is designed to stimulate a creative research environment within CIRES and to encourage synergy between disciplines and research colleagues. The program encourages novel, unconventional or fundamental research that might otherwise be difficult to fund. CIRES-wide competitions are conducted each year to foster an innovative research environment, where risk taking is allowed and even encouraged.

To learn more about this years award recipients click here.

Veronica Vaida, CIRES Fellow and Professor of Chemistry, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of her exceptional achievements in scientific research.

Vaida's research uses spectroscopy to explore different chemical reactions in the atmosphere – many of these reactions having environmental implications.

For more information about the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Veronica's research click here.

The Green Data Center at the National Snow and Ice Data Center was selected as a winner of the 2012 Green Enterprise IT (GEIT) Awards, presented by Uptime Institute. The GEIT Awards showcase organizations that are pioneering energy-efficiency improvements in their IT and data center operations. NSIDC will be honored at the seventh annual Uptime Institute Symposium, taking place in Santa Clara, CA, from May 14 to 17 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. NSIDC will present a case study about its award-winning initiative to the Symposium audience.  Learn more about the Green Data Center and the award here.

The Green Data Center team at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has received this year’s Campus Sustainability Award for Departmental Achievement. The redesign of the data center, which went online in summer 2011, slashed energy consumption for data-center cooling by more than 90 percent. The award recognizes recipients’ “commitment to reducing the burden that the CU campus places on the environment.” The award ceremony luncheon will take place April 26. Learn more about the innovative redesign here.

Each year, prestigious CIRES Graduate Student Research Fellowships (GSRF) are awarded to outstanding graduate students to support the outset of their careers or the completion of their research results. Research topics for the 2012-2013 recipients range from investigating how changes in the Arctic seasonal snow cover affect permafrost to studying bacteria that break down environmental toxins. Find a full list of the recipients here.

CIRES Fellow Roger A. Pielke Jr. has received a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa from Linköping University in Sweden for his research on how society is affected by extreme weather events such as hurricanes and floods.

Pielke is a key collaborator with Linköping University and 10 years ago established the Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research at the university. He has also been a visiting researcher at the Department of Water and Environmental Studies and is a popular speaker on the Environmental Science and Master's program Science for Sustainable Development. He is currently collaborating with researchers at the Faculty of Philosophy on the mythology of the Green Revolution and the role of science in democratic societies.

Pielke will be traveling to Norrköping, Sweden, in late May 25 to receive the insignia of this degree at the official ceremony.

CIRES Associate Director for Science, Suzanne van Drunick, and CIRES senior scientist, Betsy Weatherhead, are convening the symposium panel "Putting Scientific Breakthroughs to Work in Support of Renewable Energy" at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting on February 16-20.

At the symposium on February 17, international leaders will discuss how scientific research on renewable energy can advance cost-effective and sustainable solutions to the global energy crisis.

Speakers include:

• Dr. Dan Arvizu, Director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Dr. Susan Avery, former CIRES Director and President and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• Mr. David Grimes, President of the United Nation's World Meteorological Organization
• Dr. Alexander E. MacDonald, Director of NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory
• Dr. Peter Hauge Madsen, Head of the Department of Wind Energy, Technical University of Denmark, DTU Wind Energy

For more information about the symposium and speakers click here

Terpenes, compounds in the needles of pine trees, might be smaller than termites but they wield the power to influence the water cycle in Colorado.

In a University of Arizona video CIRES Fellow Jose Jimenez talks about the role of these molecules in cloud formation and precipitation. Currently a study, led by former CIRES Fellow Russell Monson, is being conducted in a pine forest near Manitou, Colorado to investigate how variations in the local climate affect the emission rate of these terpenes.

The video documents how the scientists—researchers from the University of Arizona, CIRES and the National Center for Atmospheric Research—are investigating the interaction between terpenes and the water cycle and explains the currently understood science about these compounds.

To watch the video click here.