Announcements

CIRES Fellow and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Maggie Tolbert is joining the CIRES administration as Associate Director. A CIRES Fellow since 1992, Tolbert will be working with CIRES Director Waleed Abdalati and Associate Director for Science Christine Wiedinmyer on a number of activities, including a new strategic plan for the institute and the competition for the next Cooperative Agreement with NOAA, which would provide another 10 years of support for CIRES.

“CIRES has really been my home since 1992,” said Tolbert, who has advised 36 Ph.D. students in those years, all supported by CIRES. “The institute has done so many amazing things for me, given me so many opportunities. So when Waleed asked me, I thought, ‘This is a good way to give back.’”

Abdalati said he’s delighted Dr. Tolbert has agreed to serve as Associate Director for the next year, which will be a critical one for CIRES. “Maggie brings outstanding credentials to the position, and her perspectives, experience and judgement will be a tremendous asset to me and the rest of the institute,” he said.

CIRES Fellow and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology William Lewis served CIRES as Associate Director for nearly 14 years, first with former director Konrad Steffen, then with Abdalati. Abdalati expressed his gratitude for Lewis’ admirable years of service, including as Interim Director of CIRES from 2012-2013. “Bill has been invaluable to this institution for many years, and to me personally, too,” Abdalati said. “I’m grateful I could rely on him for his deep knowledge of the university and his understanding of CIRES as an institution.”

Tolbert said she is excited about the opportunity to serve CIRES and the CIRES community in a new way. “These are extraordinary times we’re living through,” she said. “It’s been so easy to get caught up in focusing on things that have been taken away from us, and I’m grateful for this opportunity.”

CIRES, CU Boulder and other colleagues: please join us Wednesday for a celebration of Koni Steffen's life.

CIRES Fellow Rainer Volkamer, a CU Boulder professor of chemistry, is one of 20 international scholars awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award from Germany's Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The award provides funding and support for collaborative research with German colleagues. More info

UPDATE: As of July 14, 2020, this ICE guidance has been rescinded and international students at CU Boulder will be able to continue their incredible contributions.

A message for our International Students from CIRES, INSTAAR, Geology leadership

Dear CU Geosciences community:

Like many of you, we are appalled by the recent ICE communication, announced Monday July 6th, regarding F-1 and M-1 status international students and online study. It is an attack on valued members of our departments, our institutes and our entire enterprise. It loads further anxiety and uncertainty onto many who are already coping with difficult or restricted research environments. And it increases the sense of isolation and lack of representation among a group who are indeed underrepresented.

The announced changes jeopardize the success and safety of our international students, both graduate and undergraduate, and come in the midst of a pandemic, when we are already carefully balancing access to research, access to learning, and public health. Without serving any legitimate purpose, they put students and the research and teaching enterprises that are the core of the university at risk.

The research institutes of CU Boulder, and the departments to which these institutes are partnered, are united in standing with our international students against this reckless and damaging policy and its cruel attempt to use our members as political pawns. We are working alongside university leadership to oppose the ICE guidance and protect our international students. At CU’s request, Representatives Neguse, DeGette, and Perlmutter have all signed letters urging the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to rescind the July guidance. In the meantime, the ICE policy is not finalized and it faces strong opposition in the courts and other arenas.

While the fluidity of the situation and the breadth of the response means that any details will be out of date quickly, we want to emphasize that action is being taken at all levels. We believe that our hybrid in-person and online course model will protect all CU students from this policy if it is enacted, even if we need to shift to a remote model partway through the semester. The departmental and institute leaders are in discussion, and will be making changes that will serve to protect students from ICE rulings.

If you are here as an international student, please know that we value you and your participation in our community and will support and defend your ability to continue your education without interruption. Please review the FAQs from International Student and Scholar Services and stay in touch with that office, as well as your advisors and professors, and look for resources from the Graduate School.

In the words of one of our international students, Lina Pérez-Angel, “Science is something that is supposed to cross borders.” Thank you to all of our international scholars for being here, for being partners in discovery and innovation, and for being at the core of who we are. We stand with you.

Sincerely,

Bob Anderson, Geology

Merritt Turetsky, INSTAAR

Waleed Abdalati, CIRES

Here are other statements from other entities on campus, illustrating the breadth and depth of the response:

Statement from the College of Engineering: https://www.colorado.edu/engineering/supportingintlstudents

Statement from the United Government of Graduate Students: https://www.colorado.edu/uggs/2020/07/07/comment-regents-regarding-ice-rule

And see CU's ISSS info here: https://www.colorado.edu/isss/2020/07/07/fall-2020-planning-considerations-f-1-students

This week, the National Academy of Sciences announced that it had elected two CU Boulder researchers at the forefront of atmospheric chemistry and GPS science to its prestigious membership.

Kristine Larson and Veronica Vaida will join more than 140 other United States-based and international scientists receiving this recognition in 2020. The honor is often considered one of the highest that scientists can receive during their careers.

Larson is a professor emerita and research professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR). Vaida is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and a fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).

More: https://www.colorado.edu/today/2020/04/28/2-researchers-join-ranks-natio...

Congratulations to CIRES' Carrie Wall Bell! She's one of 25 CU Boulder researchers awarded seed funding from CU Boulder's Research & Innovation Office. Bell, who works in NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, will work with a professor of Computer Science on: "Finding Little Fish in Big Data: Automated Pattern Analysis and Anomaly Detection in the Fisheries Acoustic Archive." More...

CU ALERT: On Thursday, 3/12/20, CU Boulder was notified that an employee has received a presumptive positive test for COVID-19. https://alerts.colorado.edu/

A Boulder Daily Camera headline Wednesday morning incorrectly stated CIRES is closing. Rather, as the story itself reported, the CIRES Center for Science and Technology Policy (CSTPR) will close May 31.

CIRES Fellow Max Boykoff is the 2020 faculty recipient of the University of Colorado's Thomas Jefferson Award. The award is among the highest honors given by the CU system, and honors excellent performance in regular responsibilities accompanied by noteworthy service to the broader commuinty. Dr. Boykoff will be recognized April 15 in a Dennver ceremony.

Congratulations to NOAA's Eric Hackathorn; CIRES' Hilary Peddicord, Beth Russell, and Jonathan Joyce; and CIRA's Keith Searight, recipients of the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) 2020 Impact Award! The team was recognized "for their stellar work to bring Science On a Sphere Explorer™ and SOSx Mobile to the public." The FLC Impact Award honors employees of FLC member laboratories and non-laboratory staff whose technology transfer efforts have made a lasting and tangible impact on the populace or marketplace, ranging from a local to a global scale.

Congratulations to CIRES Director Waleed Abdalati, elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science! CUBoulder anthropologist Matt Sponheimer also earned the honor. http://bit.ly/2019AAAS

Congratulations to the 13 CU Boulder researchers who made "highly cited" status this year, according to the Web of Science Group at Clarivate Analytics! Four are from CIRES: Jose Jimenez, Noah Fierer, Julienne Stroeve, and former Ph.D. student Jonathan Leff. More: https://recognition.webofsciencegroup.com/awards/highly-cited/2019/

Congratulations to the 13 CU Boulder researchers who made "highly cited" status this year, according to the Web of Science Group at Clarivate Analytics! Four are from CIRES: Fellow Jose Jimenez (Chemistry); Fellow Noah Fierer (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology); National Snow and Ice Data Center scientist Julienne Stroeve; and former Ph.D. student Jonathan Leff, who worked in Fierer's lab. Web of Science identified Fierer as one of only 11 people in the world who achieved highly cited status in 3 fields (agricultural science, environment/ecology, and microbiology). And congrats, too, to NOAA Boulder colleagues Stephen Montzka, John Miller, Colm Sweeney and Michael Alexander, who also made the list. More: https://recognition.webofsciencegroup.com/awards/highly-cited/2019/

CO-LABS has announced the winners of the 2019 Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research, and University of Colorado Boulder researchers contributed to all three winning projects. More...

Congrats to CIRES Visiting Fellow Fabian Hoffmann, awarded CU's Outstanding Postdoc Award, reserved for postdocs excelling in research productivity and innovation, communication and leadership!

Four CIRES experts were critical to work just awarded a Department of Commerce Silver Medal! NCEI's Kelly Stroker and colleagues in the National Weather Service received commendation: “for producing high-resolution topographic-bathymetric Digital Elevation Models, informing coastal inundation models for tsunami and hurricane hazards.”

The Department of Commerce Silver Medal recognizes exceptional performance characterized by noteworthy or superlative contributions that have a direct and lasting impact within the Department. Non-federal scientists cannot receive DOC medals, but CIRES will recognize team members Kelly Carignan, Matt Love, Chris Amante, Nic Arcos with a CIRES Silver Medal at our annual Rendezvous science symposium in 2020.

Congratulations to CIRES Fellow and chemist Eleanor Browne, who won an American Society for Mass Spectrometry Research Award!

Congratulations to CIRES Fellow and Chemistry Professor Veronica Vaida, for ACS / APS's Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics, for outstanding interdisciplinary research in chemistry and physics.

Congratulations to CIRES Fellow Rainer Volkamer, honored with the Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award by the American Geophysical Union!

Congratulations to CIRES fellow Xinzhao Chu—she was chosen to give the CEDAR Prize Lecture at this summer’s CEDAR Workshop about her recent science contributions to understanding coupling from the stratosphere to the MLT resulting from Lidar development and observations in McMurdo, Antarctica!

Congrats to CIRES fellow John Cassano, awarded a 2019 Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence Award in research, scholarly and creative work!

Congratulations to Jose Jimenez, Joost de Gouw, Julienne Stroeve, Noah Fierer, and the late John Wahr, who were named 2018 Highly Cited Researchers in their fields by Clarivate Analytics!

Looking for a postdoctoral or sabbatical research opportunity? CIRES' Visiting Fellows Program is now open for applicants!

Congratulations to two of our CIRES Fellows, Peter Molnar and Craig Jones (CU Boulder Geological Sciences) who received awards at the 2018 Geological Society of America meeting this week! Peter Molnar—International Distinguished Career Award, and Craig Jones—Structural Geology and Tectonics Division, Outstanding publication award!

Congrats to the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) run by CIRES Education & Outreach. CLEAN was named an Exemplary Project by the Goldin Foundation for Excellence in Education!

Congrats to CIRES/NOAA researchers, recieved Honorable Mention from the 2018 CO-LABS Governor's Awards for High Impact Research!

The Wind Forecast Improvement Project-2, a Department of Energy and NOAA-led project, earned the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) Far West Region Award for Outstanding Partnership. The team, including federal and cooperative institute scienctists, "successfully leveraged resources, instruments, and researchers across all NOAA Earth System Research Laboratories (ESRL) Divisions, the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory Field Research Division, other federal agencies, private companies, and universities research leading to improved forecasts of wind to support the renewable energy industry. CIRES recipients include: Jaymes Kenyon, Joe Olson, Laura Bianco, Kathy Lantz, Chuck Long, Yelena Pichugina, Terra Ladwig, Eric James, Katie McCaffrey, Irina Djalalova, Aditya Choukulkar, Tim Bonin, and Brandi McCarty.

Congrats to Steve Montzka and Balaji Rajagopalan—named 2018 AGU Fellows!

Forbes China names CIRES/NOAA's Pengfei Yu in "30 under 30" list of young scholars in science & tech.

Congrats to NSIDC scientist Dr. Shari Fox Gearheard and the team behind the research project and book, “The Meaning of Ice,” they were awarded the inaugural Mohn Prize in Tromso, Norway. The International Mohn Prize recognizes “outstanding research related to the Arctic” and comes with an award of 2 million Norwegian Kroner. The project made “groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of Arctic ice-dominated systems via a highly innovative combination of natural science, social science and Indigenous knowledge.”

Congrats to our stellar CIRES Education & Outreach team involved in Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network—CLEAN won the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) 2017 Friend of the Planet award.

Congratulations CIRES Visiting Fellow Jen Henderson, elected as a AMS Academic Sector Council Member for 2018

Congratulations to our five researchers who made the Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers List in their disciplines: Noah Fierer, Joost de Gouw, José-Luis Jimenez, Mark Serreze, and Julienne Stroeve

Congrats to CIRES Fellow Peter Molnar who received CU Boulder's prestigious Distinguished Professor Honor

Congratulations, Dr. Lewis, new Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science!

Anne Gold receives Chancellor's Award for Excellence in STEM Education.

Congratulations to Athanasios Boudouridis, Abram Claycomb, Stefan Codrescu, Jonathan Darnel, Vicki Hsu, Brian Kress, Larisza Krista, Paul Loto'aniu, Janet Machol, Juan Rodriguez, William Rowland, Daniel Seaton, Margaret Tilton who received the prestigious 2017 NASA Achievement Award for excellence resulting in the successful GOES-R satellite launch, proving the nation’s foundation for the world’s highest quality weather monitoring and forecasting.

Congratulations to David Reynolds for receiving the NOAA Administrator’s award for advancing weather and climate models to balance flood and drought risks while providing water reliability for fish and people in the Western United States.

Greg Tucker awarded AGU Fellow, American Geophysical Union.

A belated congratulations to Ravan Ahmadov, Joost de Gouw, Bill Dubé, Stu McKeen, Christoph Senff, Colm Sweeney, Patrick Veres, Rebecca Washenfelder, Carsten Warneke, Abigail Koss, Chelsea Thompson for receiving an Outstanding Paper Award from NOAA OAR for their work: “High winter ozone pollution from carbonyl photolysis in an oil and gas basin,” published in Nature!

NSIDC's Jeff Deems received Honorable Mention from CO-LABS’ Governor's Award for High-Impact Research, for his work in improving avalanche safety and water resource management.

Paul Johnston and David Costa receive NOAA Technology Transfer Award for being part of a team that designed, implemented, and operated a 21st-Century observing network to address water resource and flood protection issues in the W. United States.

CIRES scientist Elizabeth Weatherhead wins Kenneth C. Spengler Award from AMS, named AMS Fellow

Congratulations to Ron Weaver, NSIDC, for earning a University Medal, in honor of lasting contributions to climate research and data management

Congratulations to all those who contributed to the Physical Sciences Laboratory's El Nino Rapid Response work, which has earned a Department of Commerce Bronze Medal!

Congratulations to Anne Perring for recieving Presidential Honor

Congratulations to Lesley Smith of CIRES Education and Outreach for being named one of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography 2016 class of Fellows!

Four CIRES scientists — Noah Fierer, Jose-Luis Jimenez, Julienne Stroeve and Mark Serreze — were named "2016 Highly Cited Researchers" by Clarivate Analytics

Congratulations to CIRES' Stu McKeen and his NOAA colleagues who are co-authors on an Atmospheric Environment paper that received the 2016 Haagen-Smit Prize

Congratulations to CIRES Fellow Jose-Luis Jimenez (CU Boulder Chemistry and Biochemistry) who is one of just two Fellows elected to the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) this year

Congratulations to CIRES Fellow Jennifer Kay (CU Boulder Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) for winning the AMS Houghton award

View the CIRES 2015 Annual Report

A team of NOAA and CIRES scientists earned a DOC Gold Medal for their work on the Deep Space Climate Observatory mission, dedicated to space weather. The team, led by NOAA's Doug Biesecker, included CIRES' Alysha Reinard, Jeff Johnson, Michael Burek, Tom DeFoor, Richard Grubb, Ratina Dodani, and Michele Cash

Congratulations to CIRES' Bob Evans and Birgit Hassler for ozone research related awards from the International Ozone Commission!

Meet the team of innovators and inventors in the Integrated Instrument Development Facility!

CIRES Distinguished Lecture Series: Dr. Steve Running webcast starts at 4:00 MDT