GFDL Awards & Honors

Tom Delworth, a Senior Scientist and leader of the Seasonal to Decadal Variability and Predictability division at GFDL, has been honored with the 2023 Presidential Rank Award.  One of the most prestigious awards in the civil service, it recognizes the important contributions of public servants across the federal government. “The Presidential Rank Awards highlight public […]

Congratulations to Vaishali Naik (Research Physical Scientist), recipient of the 2023 Piers J. Sellers Global Environmental Change Mid-Career Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU). With this award, AGU recognizes Dr. Naik for her “outstanding contributions in research, educational, or societal impacts in the area of global environmental change, especially through interdisciplinary approaches.” Known for […]

Ronald Stouffer has been awarded the 2024 Syukuro Manabe Climate Research Award from the American Meteorological Society (AMS), “for groundbreaking development of coupled atmosphere-ocean climate models with innovative applications to characterize and quantify global climate variability and change.” Stouffer began his research career at GFDL in 1977, working with Syukuro Manabe, and was a senior […]

Rong Zhang, a Senior Scientist and head of GFDL’s Ocean and Cryosphere Division, was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) for 2023 for her “seminal contributions to the study of the Atlantic Ocean and its role in global climate.”  Dr. Zhang is considered a leading expert on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation […]

For Ming Zhao’s “growing research accomplishments and leadership in climate model development”, he has been recognized with the 2022 AGU Ascent Award. A Senior Physical Scientist at GFDL, Zhao conducts research focused on challenging topics with extensive societal and economic implications, while also being exceptionally skilled in the development of climate models. Dr. Zhao successfully […]

Honoring his contributions to the advancement of physics, the American Physical Society (APS) elected NOAA Climate Scientist V. “Ram” Ramaswamy among its 2021 Fellows. The APS Fellowship Program recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions in physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or physics education. As Director of the […]

Today, Syukuro “Suki” Manabe, 90, was named among the winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics for his groundbreaking climate science achievements. His pioneering research in the 1960s laid the foundation for how scientists perceive the Earth’s climate and how human actions continue to influence it. Starting in the 1960s, Manabe, a senior meteorologist […]

As a Research Oceanographer, Alistair Adcroft knows the importance of teamwork when it comes to advancing global climate science. For this dedication, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) just honored him among its 2021 Honors Award, which recognizes scientists nationwide for their outstanding career work within their fields. Adcroft specifically earned the AGU Ocean Sciences Award […]

There is a meme usually making the rounds on the Internet, entitled: Midwestern dads during a tornado warning. It typically involves a man standing in his backyard or mowing the lawn, while casually staring a giant funnel cloud coming his way. “I can definitely relate to that,” Tom Delworth said. As a boy growing up […]

Honoring a distinguished career in atmospheric sciences, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) will present V. “Ram” Ramaswamy with the 2022 Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal. Ramaswamy has served as director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey since 2008. Regarded as the highest award AMS offers, the medallion […]