July 13th, 2011
GFDL’s Arlene Fiore is set to join an esteemed line of geophysical scientists as winner of the 2011 American Geophysical Union (AGU) James B. Macelwane Medal. Still early in her career, Dr. Fiore has distinguishing herself in the geophysical sciences for making significant contributions to atmospheric chemistry, and enhancing our understanding of ozone pollution and its impact on climate.
Her research has also focused on deciphering the global roles of methane in both air quality and climate and its potential for regulation; evaluating the role of intercontinental transport in regional air quality and defining the role of isoprene in regional and hemispheric air quality and global environmental policy analysis.
Dr. Fiore has authored over 50 published papers in the peer reviewed literature. Her work has shed light on the sources of background ozone over North America, its contribution to ozone pollution episodes and the various strategies used to reduce it. Dr. Fiore’s work has also shown that pollutants from outside North America enhance surface ozone over the U.S. and her findings motivated the U.S. EPA to lower its estimate of “policy-relevant background” surface ozone, suggesting that ozone risks from U.S. emissions have previously been underestimated.
In collaboration with colleagues, Dr. Fiore has helped to quantify the economic and global health benefits of methane control, to provide an explanation for the observed trends in methane levels, and to characterize the tropospheric ozone response to methane emission controls and the benefits to climate and air quality. Her work led to the identification of methane emission control as a key priority for ozone abatement in Europe, and she has worked with the Clean Air Task Force and the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management on methane mitigation in the U.S.
Dr. Fiore was a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2006. She also co-founded the Earth Science Women’s Network and was a member of their Leadership Board from 2006-2010. She has been an active member of the American Geophysical Union EOS Editorial Advisory Board (Atmospheric Sciences) since January 2010. Recently, she was selected to be a Lead Author for the International Panel of Climate Change Assessment Report 5, Working Group 1, Chapter 11.
Dr. Fiore, along with other awardees, will be celebrated on December 7 at an honors ceremony held at the 2011 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco.