CIRES 2009 Annual Report NOAA Cooperative Agreement #NA17RJ1229
Konrad Steffen, Director
William M. Lewis, Jr, Associate Director
Suzanne van Drunick, Associate Director for Science
Executive Summary
The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado at Boulder has been a world leader in environmental sciences since 1977. CIRES researchers pursue science in service to society, applying both established and innovative techniques to pressing problems around the globe. In 2009, CIRES, the oldest and largest of NOAA’s cooperative institutes, completed the fifth year of its current cooperative agreement (Agreement) with NOAA. This summary highlights many of the past year’s activities and research accomplishments, demonstrating how CIRES continues help NOAA meet its strategic goals.
During fiscal year 2009 (FY09), 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009, CIRES supported 182 research scientists, 199 associate scientists, 30 visiting scientists, 16 postdoctoral researchers, 36 administrative staff, 95 graduate students, and 73 undergraduate students. CIRES is particularly proud of its 20 faculty lines. In total, CIRES supported 651 scientists, administrative staff, and students, with an overall extramural research budget of nearly $50,000,000 (4.7 percent more than FY08). Including university faculty support, CIRES’ total budget is more than $53,500,000 and NOAA funds account for about $25,500,000 (48 percent).
CIRES is a dynamic institute, and in FY09 four of its centers had a planned change in leadership.
In September 2008, Dr. William Travis, CIRES Fellow and Associate Professor of Geography, became the new director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research. Dr. Travis is an expert in natural hazards, land use, and human ecology.
Also in September, 2008, Dr. Prashant Sardeshmukh, CIRES Fellow and senior research scientist, became the new director of the Climate Diagnostics Center. His area of expertise is the effects of rising ocean temperatures on land temperatures.
The former Center for the Study of Earth from Space has a new director, Dr. Waleed Abdalati, CIRES Fellow and Associate Professor of Geography; a new name, the Earth Science and Observation Center (ESOC); and a new mission and vision. Prior to joining CIRES in July 2008, Dr. Abdalati was the head of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Cryospheric Sciences Branch at the Goddard Space Flight Center. In February, he developed a new strategic plan with a new mission and vision for ESOC. Dr. Richard Spinrad was among the many guests who attended the center’s open house, held to encourage NOAA and university-wide collaboration with ESOC’s six faculty members on a broad range of activities from in situ observations to unmanned aircraft systems deployment and satellite mission design.
New this year, Dr. Mark Serreze was selected to lead the CIRES’ National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), following a highly competitive international search for a new director. Dr. Serreze will succeed Distinguished Professor Roger Barry, who stepped down as director in 2008 after 31 years of service. Dr. Serreze, CIRES Fellow and senior research scientist at NSIDC since 2005, will officially become the new director and Professor of Geography in August 2009. He brings to the position internationally recognized expertise in Arctic climate change, especially his research into the environmental implications of the rapidly declining Arctic sea ice cover. Dr. Serreze has authored more than 90 scientific publications, including an award-winning textbook, The Arctic Climate System, coauthored with Dr. Barry.
A junior faculty search by the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research was also successful. Dr. Maxwell Boykoff will join CIRES in the fall of 2009 as CIRES’ newest fellow and Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies. Dr. Boykoff’s research interests include environmental governance, science and policy interactions, and political economics and the environment, with a focus on the transformations of carbon-based economies and societies. Prior to joining CIRES, he was a research fellow in the Environmental Change Institute and department lecturer in the School of Geography at the Oxford University Centre for the Environment.
The CIRES Council of Fellows is also pleased to welcome Dr. Rainer Volkamer, Assistant Professor in Chemistry and Biochemistry. Dr. Volkamer studies atmospheric chemistry in the context of air quality and climate, using a combination of in situ and remote-sensing measurement techniques. His current projects include ocean-atmosphere interactions over the tropical Pacific Ocean, coastal atmospheric chemistry affecting mercury levels, and the dynamics of ozone and secondary organic aerosol precursor gases. In 2009, Dr. Volkamer was awarded the Faculty Early Career Development Program, the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars. CIRES is very pleased to continue support of its established competitive programs that provide research and education opportunities to visiting scientists, innovative CIRES scientists, and graduate students. This past year, six visiting fellowships were awarded to postdoctoral and sabbatical scientists conducting diverse research on ice, clouds, mountain-building, and more.
The Innovative Research Program funded nine novel, inventive proposals to support exploratory research. Supported projects ranged from the use of mini-gliders for making high-resolution atmospheric measurements to climate change impacts on ocean productivity and the effect of mountain pine beetles on emissions of volatile organic compounds from the soil.
The CIRES Distinguished Lecture Series featured five notable speakers: Dr. Susan Solomon, Dr. Gerard Roe, Dr. Alan Robock, Dr. Greg Carmichael, and Dr. Raymond Bradley. The invited speakers gave engaging presentations on climate change prediction, geoengineering as a possible solution to a warming climate, the globalization of air pollution, and deglacierization of the tropics. Researchers at NOAA’s David Skaggs Research Center have the opportunity to meet and collaborate with CIRES’ newest fellows, center directors, and senior scientists at an on-site seminar series, established in early 2008.
CIRES is a strong supporter of its graduate students and is working closely with its Graduate Student Association, recently created to provide a venue for students to discuss their research in organized seminars and to enjoy social events with colleagues. The ESRL-CIRES Graduate Student Research Fellowship, started in the last fiscal year, awarded one master’s and two doctoral fellowships to new CIRES graduate students, who will complete their coursework in a CIRES-affiliated department or program at the university while conducting research at ESRL. In a separate program, seven new and current students advised by a CIRES fellow were awarded research assistantships.
CIRES participated in, organized, and sponsored numerous events in FY09. Highlights include a special briefing in August by CIRES’ climate scientists for a group of Italian delegates interested in understanding climate change impacts on ice sheets, sea ice, permafrost, and sea level, and in policy research on mitigation and adaptation. Fred Fehsenfeld, one of the first NOAA scientists to be appointed as a CIRES fellow, was honored at a symposium and luncheon in September 2008 for 46 years of scientific achievement. Dr. Fehsenfeld is among the most-cited geoscientists in the world, with more than 300 published papers, and he has received dozens of scientific awards and honors. Also recognized for his achievements was CIRES Fellow and former Director Robert Sievers, who is developing a patented inhalable measles vaccine. Dr. Sievers received the Governor of Colorado’s Award for Research Impact in February 2009.
CIRES Education and Outreach held two climate change workshops on teaching and effectively communicating climate science. The Western Water Assessment held four workshops on tree-ring reconstruction and projections of streamflow, agriculture-to-urban water transfers, and climate change modeling for water providers. CIRES was also an active contributor to the University’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Initiative and the founding of the new Center for Research and Education in Wind, part of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory comprised of three academic institutions and three federal labs, including NOAA.
This annual report is an accounting of collaborative research goals described in the CIRES-NOAA FY09 and FY10 Scientific Workplan (PDF), year one. The report is organized by NOAA’s six scientific themes identified in the Agreement— advanced modeling and observing systems, climate variability, geodynamics, planetary metabolism, regional processes, and integrating activities.
