AMS Awards: Student Chapter of the Year and More

AMS Awards: Student Chapter of the Year and More

SCAN Wins Student Chapter of the Year Award

The School of Meteorology is pleased to announce that the Student Chapter and AMS and NWA (SCAN) won the Student Chapter of the Year 2020 Award! This is the first time SCAN has won this award.
The Student Chapter of the Year award is awarded “for providing students with unique career, education, and service opportunities, and expanding the reach of the chapter to benefit members, alumni, and the local community.” This past school year, SCAN was involved in community outreach and virtual programming, and SCAN’s president Amanda Novak attributes reaching these goals directly to winning this award.
“The main goals from the previous semester that helped us win this award were expanding the breadth of opportunities and activities for our members, as well as collaborating with the central OK Local chapter of AMS for meetings and collaborating with the Florida State University student chapter for hurricane relief,” she said. “We reached 100 members and created a travel fund for students to receive a small stipend to travel to AMS/NWA was also something that was added during the previous year. Lastly, continuing to create opportunities and host meetings after COVID-19 shut down the physical meeting of the organization was another main goal to keep member participation up.”
Novak feels ecstatic that her organization received this honor. She credits this achievement to the work done by last year’s SCAN President.
“It feels amazing that we won Student Chapter of the Year,” she said. “The last president, Tyler Stanfield, went above and beyond with his duties, creating so many new opportunities for students to get involved, as well as expanding the community outreach. We hope to continue the momentum that was left behind from the previous board’s executive community and continue for many years to come.”
In the near future, SCAN hopes to improve its organization through active recruiting and virtual programming.
“We hope to continue increasing participation and membership, as well as get more graduate students involved. We also aim to host a variety of meetings and social events for the upcoming school year, no matter if it is virtual or in person. We do have some new ideas for possible online social events if the case presents itself. In addition, we plan to expand Weather Friends into creating youtube videos and to continue to spread weather awareness in a virtual format for all to see!”
Once again, congratulations to these amazing students!

Dr. Federick Carr Wins The Cleveland Abbe Award

Dr. Frederick Carr, an Emeritus Professor at OU, won The Cleveland Abbe Award for distinguished service to the atmospheric sciences. Carr was gratified and humbled to receive this award.
“[This award] reflects the fact that I provided leadership and service to a wide spectrum of the U.S. weather and climate community, not just to one aspect of it,” he said. “I was also honored that my nominators included the former Dean of the A&GS College, the current head of UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research), and the current Director of the National Weather Service.”
In order to qualify for and receive this award through AMS, the individual must work “tireless, selfless, wide-ranging service to the community that has had an immeasurable impact on the nation’s weather, water, and climate efforts.” Carr has been committed to serving others through meteorology for 40 years.
“I have served as a Councilor of the AMS, as well as Editor/Assoc. Editor of 3 of its journals,” he said. “I served as President of the AMS in 2016, which includes a 4-year term on its Executive Committee. I have served as Chair of many AMS Committees and Boards.”
“I have was honored as a “Founder of COMET”, an NWS training center at UCAR in Boulder, and taught courses to many SOOs.  I have helped do several reviews of NOAA research labs.  I have co-chaired several modeling review committees to help NCEP and NOAA improve their NWP capabilities (and try to catch up to the Euro model!)”
“I served on the UCAR Board of Trustees for 6 years, and 5 more years as Co-Chair of the Governance Task Group (which helped modernize UCAR’s Bylaws).  I also served as a reviewer for UCAR’s proposal to manage NCAR.”
“I have served on dozens of OU, College and School of Meteorology committees, and served as Director of the School from 1996 to 2010, during which time we designed, built and moved into the National Weather Center. This was all in addition to teaching, advising and research in the School, for which I have won other awards.”
The work doesn’t stop for Carr now. He plans to conduct more research and volunteer within AMS and NOAA.
“Even though I am officially retired from teaching, I plan to uphold this honor by continuing to perform research and service as an Emeritus Professor at OU,” he said. “I am the Co-Principal Investigator of 3 grants, which help support scientists in CAPS and a graduate student.  I have published 4 papers over the past 12 months. I still manage the Australia Study Abroad Program for the School.  I am the Chair of the new AMS Ethics Committee, which has important work to do.  And I am still Co-Chairing a Modeling Advisory Committee for NOAA. So, I’m still staying busy!”
Congratulations on receiving this award, Dr. Carr!

Dr. Amy McGovern Named AMS Fellow

Dr. Amy McGovern, an adjunct professor at the School of Meteorology, was named a 2020 AMS Fellow. She was honored and happy to receive this distinction.
McGovern believes her meteorological research and commitment to AMS set her apart and helped her achieve this honor.
“To be a fellow, AMS value research and service,” she said. “My research for 15 years has focused on bringing AI and ML to meteorology and demonstrating that they can be used to improve forecasting and understanding of high-impact weather. For service, I have been very active in service to AMS, as a chair for the AMS AI for Environmental Science committee and a chair and co-chair of the corresponding AMS AI conference for many years.  I also serve as an editor for WAF.”
To uphold this distinction, McGovern will continue to dive deep into her artificial intelligence research.
“I plan to continue to be very active in research: you should check out our newly formed NSF AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate, and Coastal Oceanography,” she said, “and I am continuing to be active in AMS service!”
We are so proud of your achievement, Dr. McGovern! Congratulations!