Announcements and News

As home to the Climate Dynamics PhD program, AOES has offered a strong graduate curriculum in atmospheric science since the creation of the department in 2008.  Two new courses now bring more of the department's expertise in climate and atmospheric science to undergraduate students as well.

AOES Professor David Straus has accepted an appointment as Chair of
the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, effective
25 August 2009.  He succeeds Acting Chair Jagadish Shukla.

Dr. Shukla writes, "The appointment of David Straus as the new
chairman bodes well for the future of the department.  David is a
world leader in climate diagnostic research.  His scientific
excellence and enthusiasm combined with his pleasant personality and

New Faculty Member Brings Vertebrate Paleontology Expertise to AOES

The Earth Science B.S. concentration in Coastal Oceanography and Estuarine Science has been renamed Oceanography and Estuarine Science.  The shortened name represents a larger scope.  The concentration will now give students a deeper understanding of the full range of oceanographic science, including the circulation, geology, chemistry, and life sciences of the ocean. New classes have been created for the concentration:

Climate Dynamics Ph.D. student Balachandrudu Narapusetty was awarded
"First Place Poster Presentation" at the AMS 16th Conference on
Air-Sea Interaction in Phoenix, Arizona, in January 2009.  AMS is the
American Meteorological Society, the premier US scientific
organization for atmospheric sciences.

Bala's topic was "Potential contributions of Tropical Instability
Waves in change of eastern equatorial Pacific's climate".  The work is

Climate Dynamics PhD student Erik Swenson was awarded a fellowship to the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) for summer, 2008.EAPSI is an NSF program to provide U.S. graduate students first-hand research experience in the Far East.  Swenson was chosen from among 537 applications for 195 slots this year.

Tugrul Yilmaz, a Geography and Geoinformation Science student whose advisor is AOES professor Paul Houser, has been awarded the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) for the 2008-09 academic year. Yilmaz was one of 50 students, out of 200 applicants, to receive the $30,000/year award, which is renewable for a total of three years. The fellowship will help him finish work on his doctoral dissertation.

The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore, "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

Huang Receives AMS Editors Award

Shukla Receives IMO Prize

Kirtman Receives Editors Citation

Climate Dynamics Researchers Find Higher Global Warming Estimates Likely

Climate Dynamics Chair Meets with Prime Minister of India

Dirmeyer Receives AMS Meisinger Award

Student chosen as delegate to 2005 Climate Change workshop and summit in Switzerland

Shukla receives AMS Rossby Medal