April 1st, 2014
European Geosciences Union has awarded the 2014 Fridtjof Nansen Medal to Stephen M. Griffies, “for his outstanding contribution and leadership in ocean general circulation model development and critical insights in the physical nature and parameterisation of ocean processes.” The Ocean Sciences Division of the European Geosciences Union established this medal in 1996, in recognition of the scientific achievements of Fridtjof Nansen. It is awarded for distinguished research in oceanography.
Dr. Griffies is the lead developer of the Modular Ocean Model, one of the most advanced ocean circulation modelling systems in the world. He has critically contributed to all major pillars of ocean model development including numerical algorithms, physical parameterisations and computational techniques. Numerical ocean models developed by Dr. Griffies constitute oceanic components for many coupled climate models that are central to current projections of climate change and climate predictions on seasonal, decadal and centennial time scales.
Dr. Griffies has been with GFDL for more than two decades, and is also a lecturer and mentor in the Princeton University graduate Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program. He has chaired the WCRP Climate Variability and Predictability Working Group on Ocean Model Development for a decade, providing invaluable leadership to advance ocean modelling in the international scientific community. Dr. Griffies has also led the Coordinated Ocean Reference Experiments, one of the most successful inter-comparison projects in oceanography. In addition, he has been a Distinguished Visiting Scientist Fellow of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. Dr. Griffies holds graduate degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania.