Jessica D. Lundquist received the 2008 Cryosphere Young Investigator Award at the 2008 AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held 17 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award is for a significant contribution to cryospheric science and technology.

Citation

I want to introduce to you Jessica Lundquist, of the University of Washington, selected this year for the AGU Cryosphere Young Investigator Award. Jessica has addressed critical questions in cryospheric science and linked her work to the sciences of hydrology and climate.

Jessica originally came to Scripps (part of the University of California, San Diego, even though they don’t like to admit it) to study coastal fog! But her love of the outdoors and her associations with Dan Cayan and Mike Dettinger led her to the study of snow, particularly in the spring when runoff occurs and when the Sierra Nevada is most pleasant, especially before the mosquitoes hatch.

As a graduate student, and as an assistant professor at the University of Washington, Jessica has published an impressive list of journal articles in the highest-impact journals in snow science and hydroclimatology, including Water Resources Research, Journal of Geophysical Research, and Journal of Hydrometeorology. I first got to know her through her work that explained diurnal variability in snowmelt runoff, what she called the “pulse of the mountains,” at a variety of scales, a problem I had worked on without much success. She has shown innovation in field methods, especially in the use of small temperature and pressure sensors for characterizing snowmelt runoff in the high-elevation basins. Her recently developed technique for implanting small temperature sensors high in the forest canopy is amazing; essentially it is a high-end slingshot.

To summarize, Jessica’s contributions include the importance of snowpack spatial heterogeneity to streamflow timing; the effect of the interplay between climate warming, earlier snowmelt, and spatial heterogeneity; a model of cold air pooling in mountainous terrain; cross-disciplinary research that promotes the important role of the mountain snowpacks in climate, hydrology, atmospheric science, and ecology; and communicating her results to the lay public.

Congratulations, Jessica, from all of us. We look forward to reading your work for many years.

Response

Thank you, Jeff, for your kind introduction, and to AGU and the National Snow and Ice Data Center for supporting this award. I am honored.

My childhood goals were to grow up to be like John Muir, hiking and writing in Yosemite National Park of the Sierra Nevada, California. That changed during undergraduate studies at University of California, Davis, when Jim McClain, Terry Nathan, Jeff Mount, and many other professors convinced me to change my major from nature-literature to meteorology; they showed me that science is fun and worthwhile.

Inspired by Jim Edson and Wade McGillis at a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduate program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, I went to Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at University of California, San Diego, to study marine meteorology with David Rogers. After my M.S. degree on coastal fog, I stumbled across Mike Dettinger and Dan Cayan, who were studying snow and climate in Yosemite. I thank Dan and Mike for encouraging creativity, whether swapping labor for instruments, or smiling when the abominable snowman appeared on an AGU poster or two. I also thank the students and professors of SIO. Fellowships from National Defense Science and Engineering Technology, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Cal-IT2), and Canon provided essential support for me as SIO’s first “high-altitude oceanographer.”

Following my Ph.D. I joined Randy Dole, Marty Ralph, and David Kingsmill, who mentored me at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth Science Research Lab (ESRL) in Boulder, Colo. ESRL is a wonderfully close-knit and friendly community of scientists. I thank Mark Losleben and Dave Clow for helping me establish my Rocky Mountain field research and Nick Pepin for partnering with me to understand mountain temperatures. I especially thank Connie Millar for serving as my “science mom” during this time period, as my best female role model of how to be both a successful scientist and a well-rounded person.

In 2006, I joined the University of Washington, where Steve Burges took me under his wing and taught me how to use a background in meteorology and oceanography to become a successful professor of civil and environmental engineering. Thank you, Steve. I thank Steve Loheide for partnering with me on my first successful NSF grant, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers for jogging with me and advising on everything, my students for making work fun, and Bob Westfall for reading any paper draft I sent him.

Finally, I thank the people who hold me up when the times are toughest: my mom, my dad, and Andrey Shcherbina.

Daehyun Kim received the James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award at the 2012 AGU Fall Meeting, held 3–7 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes outstanding research contributions by a junior atmospheric scientist within 3 years of his or her Ph.D.

Citation

Daehyun Kim, the winner of the James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award, works on intraseasonal variability (especially the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO)) and deep convection, including convective parameterization and climate model development. Although only receiving his Ph.D. 2 years ago, he has published 21 papers in high-quality journals.

His accomplishments can best be described by quoting from his nomination letters. “I would argue that Daehyun has done as much as any other single individual (at any career stage) in the last few years to push forward our understanding of the MJO using GCMs.” “His work is distinguished from that of others in the field by two things. First, Daehyun is able to get into a model—including into the guts of the parameterizations—and manipulate it with great facility. He is also unparalleled at model diagnosis and analysis.” “This kind of deep analysis is needed if we are to learn about the atmosphere from flawed models—and when we study the MJO, all models are flawed.”

“Simply put, Daehyun is a scientific phenomenon. He is one of those rare individuals who possess keen scientific insight as well as the boundless enthusiasm and energy to carry out his ideas. We could tell that Daehyun was someone special when he took it upon himself to lead development of the MJO Diagnostics package of the CLIVAR [Climate Variability and Predictability] MJO Working Group as a student. This comprehensive package is considered the gold standard for MJO diagnosis. Amazingly, he did this project on the side while developing a convection parameterization for his Ph.D. research.” “I consider Daehyun to be the best young scientist to enter the field of tropical meteorology in the last few years, and I feel fortunate to have interacted with him.”

“After arriving at Columbia, Daehyun made it a point to learn the gory details of our GCM [general circulation model] so he could design and implement his own improvements. Almost no one ever has the tenacity and insight to do this successfully with GCMs except the people who build them and run them. To paraphrase the old saying—everyone always complains about climate models but nobody ever does anything about them. Daehyun was the exception—he did something.”

“The energy and fundamental insights Daehyun brings to any problem he tackles, combined with his tremendous intellectual curiosity and a humility that too few scientists exhibit, account for the steep arc his career has taken.”

“Daehyun Kim is really a prototype for the 21st-century leader in the climate community. There are not many tropical meteorologists (of any age) who can translate theoretical insights into practical approaches that actually make climate models more realistic.”

For these reasons, the AGU Atmospheric Sciences section is proud to award the 2012 James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award to Daehyun Kim.

Response

It is my great honor to be selected as a recipient of the James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award by AGU. I appreciate AGU and the award committee for the award. I first saw Professor Holton’s name on his famous textbook when I was an undergraduate student. I remember his book made me think that atmospheric science was fun. I personally regard the prestigious award given to me as an encouraging message from the society, and I also feel that I have to pay back to the society in any way I can.

I should acknowledge the names of people who have heavily influenced my research career. I know the award would not be mine if I had not met these people: In-Sik Kang, my thesis advisor, who taught me how to live as a scientist; Adam Sobel and Tony Del Genio, my postdoc advisors, who broadened my view on science and provided me with endless opportunity; and Duane Waliser, Ken Sperber, Eric Maloney, Chidong Zhang, and other scientists in the U.S. CLIVAR MJO Working Group, who have continuously helped me and encouraged me since I was a graduate student. Finally, I would like to mention the two women I love the most: my wife Mijung Lim and my daughter Irene Kim. Thank you.

Ralph A. Kahn and Ross J. Salawitch received the 2009 Yoram J. Kaufman Award for Unselfish Cooperation in Research at the 2009 AGU Fall Meeting, held 14–18 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award is for “broad influence in atmospheric science through exceptional creativity, inspiration of younger scientists, mentoring, international collaborations, and unselfish cooperation in research.”

Response

It is with a sense of pride and humility that I accept the Yoram J. Kaufman Award. It is wonderful to share the award with Ralph Kahn. The award Web page states that Yoram “advised and mentored a large number of students and junior scientists and was known for his quick insight, great heart, deep wisdom, and outreach to national and international collaborators.” These are lofty attributes that I aspire to one day achieve!

Like Yoram, I have been inspired by a large number of young scientists with whom I have been fortunate to collaborate. Our efforts, often led by junior scientists, quantified the effects of human activity on atmospheric composition with tremendous benefit to society. The findings resulted in a sharp decline of anthropogenic emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), leading to stabilization of stratospheric ozone depletion. Perhaps more important and certainly less appreciated, declining levels of CFCs and related halocarbons have had a beneficial effect on the surface radiative forcing that drives climate change, due to the large global warming potential of these compounds.

Recently, we’ve quantified the “climate penalty factor” for air quality, showing that removal of nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-fired power plants results in significant improvements to air quality downwind of plants as well as a reduction in the likely impact of climate change on air quality. Our next major endeavor is the measurement of CO2 from space with an accuracy and precision sufficient to address outstanding issues in global carbon cycle science and perhaps future treaty verification. It has been a great pleasure to work with so many outstanding young scientists during various field campaigns, satellite mission planning and interpretation meetings, and academic settings. Of course, I am simply “returning the favor” for the outstanding mentorship I was fortunate to receive from so many “senior scientists.”

Ross J. Salawitch, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park

Ralph A. Kahn and Ross J. Salawitch received the 2009 Yoram J. Kaufman Award for Unselfish Cooperation in Research at the 2009 AGU Fall Meeting, held 14–18 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award is for “broad influence in atmospheric science through exceptional creativity, inspiration of younger scientists, mentoring, international collaborations, and unselfish cooperation in research.”

Response

I am grateful to the committee for this honor. It is an award for mentoring and for collaboration. Mentoring and collaboration are not things that one does alone. There are many students, colleagues, and former students who are now colleagues, who I have to thank for this. I am fortunate to know, and to have worked with, so many good-hearted and multitalented colleagues, of which Yoram Kaufman was certainly one.

On the subject of collaboration, I also want to mention the intensive field campaigns that have become a key part of my research program. They represent cultural as well as scientific events, bringing satellite and suborbital experimentalists together with each other, with modelers, and with some enlightened and forward thinking managers, for intense, collaborative efforts. For an important segment of the atmospheric research community, these campaigns have actually created the kind of multidisciplinary environment that was spoken about in the abstract for years, and that is essential for making real progress on the immensely challenging and critically important climate change issues we face. I look forward to many more years of good collaborating and mentoring.

Thank you again for this honor.

Ian M. Howat received the 2007 Cryosphere Young Investigator Award at the 2007 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Calif. The award is for a significant contribution to cryospheric science and technology.

Citation

I have had the great pleasure of knowing Ian M. Howat over the past seven and a half years and to benefit from his great intellect, rock-solid work ethics, and collegiality. I have been always impressed by his ability to stay focused on science while collecting field data in Antarctica and Iceland, or during long periods of computational work at UCSC. It is terrific to now see Ian receive the 2007 AGU Cryosphere Young Investigator Award for his major contribution to understanding recent, rapid changes in ice discharge from Greenland outlet glaciers.

In 2005, Ian, then still a graduate student, was the first scientist to document that major outlet glaciers in SE Greenland experienced dramatic acceleration and thinning in the first half of this decade. His findings represent a timely addition to the scientific effort aimed at evaluating the stability of the Greenland ice sheet and its potential contribution to near-future sea level rise. Ian’s research results drew the attention of national and international media. They also helped motivate a number of subsequent scientific studies of Greenland outlet glaciers. In the process of doing his groundbreaking work, Ian made a significant technological improvement in the feature-tracking software used to calculate glacier flow velocities from satellite images.

Although Ian’s work on Greenland outlet glaciers has achieved the highest level of visibility, it is important to recognize that he has also made significant contributions to other research areas, varying from the history of deglaciation in the Ross Sea to the climate sensitivity of glaciers and snowpack in California. Ian’s Ross Sea work built a solid foundation for his scientific career in the form of a “supersized” senior thesis forged under the thorough supervision of Eugene Domack. During his graduate education at UCSC, Ian dove right into quantitative glaciology, a theme that he continued to develop during his postdoctoral years, supervised jointly by two outstanding glaciologists, Ian Joughin and Ted Scambos. Ian’s great scientific achievements and potential led him to a tenure-track position in glaciology at the renowned Byrd Polar Research Center.

I have no doubt that Ian is on a quick trajectory to becoming an international leader in cryospheric sciences. My interactions with Ian during his doctoral studies at UCSC were comparable in terms of their intellectual intensity and scientific quality to interactions I had with Barclay Kamb and Hermann Engelhardt at Caltech. Ian will have an important impact on the evolution of cryospheric sciences.

Response

Thank you, Slawek, for that wonderful citation. I feel tremendously lucky for the “dream team” of mentors who provided a constant stream of support, guidance, and enthusiasm since the first day I walked through the door of Gene Domack’s lab at Hamilton College. Thinking that going to Antarctica sounded fun, I signed up as an undergraduate researcher for what turned out to be the transformative event of my career. I spent 6 weeks aboard an icebreaker off the Antarctic coast with the eminent marine geophysicist John Anderson, where I was treated not just as an assistant but as an investigator. Here I found the joy of scientific discovery and became hooked for life. After a semester visiting at the Institute for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies in Tasmania, I was back a year later to Antarctica, this time with Gene, in the Peninsula region. Despite the interesting science and the beauty of that coast, my stomach was no match for the swell of the Drake Passage, and I realized I was better physiologically suited to land-based studies.

Somehow Gene was able to talk Slawek, one of the greatest quantitative minds in glaciology, into taking me, holder of a liberal arts degree in geology with no programming skills, on as an M.S. student at UCSC. Slawek’s can-do attitude and sheer enthusiasm made it easy to find the motivation to catch up, and within a year I was directing research activities at Mount Shasta, California, and in Iceland, as well as settling into the codes and algorithms. I was enjoying myself so much that I switched to the Ph.D. program within a year of arriving.

My incredible fortune in mentors continued with my postdoctoral studies. As I became more interested in remote sensing, toward the end of graduate school, I forged collaborations with the two top researchers in radar and optical remote sensing of ice sheets, Ian Joughin at the University of Washington and Ted Scambos at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, respectively. These collaborations morphed into a tremendously enriching and successful joint postdoc position. I hope to continue my close work with these excellent scientists long into the future.

Finally, I’m most lucky for the unconditional love and support of my family, my mother and father and my wife, Erica. They continue to be the foundation upon which all I accomplish is built.

Alex B. Guenther received the Yoram J. Kaufman Unselfish Cooperation in Research Award at the 2011 AGU Fall Meeting, held 5–9 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes “broad influence in atmospheric science through exceptional creativity, inspiration of younger scientists, mentoring, international collaborations, and unselfish cooperation in research.”

Citation

The Atmospheric Sciences section of AGU awards the 2011 Yoram J. Kaufman Unselfish Cooperation in Research Award to Alex B. Guenther of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). His qualifications for this award can best be expressed by quoting from those who know him best, as expressed in his nomination letters: “Despite his formidable research reputation—he is without question the world’s leading expert [on the subject of] emissions of volatile organic compounds from the biosphere to the atmosphere—Alex has always remained extremely approachable and friendly and encourages interactions with early career scientists.” “I can say without reservation that he is the most unselfish scientist I have ever had dealings with. Alex has always been incredibly generous with his time and has always gone out of his way to help students and others starting out.” “Alex Guenther has been the catalyst for much of the cohesiveness that has developed within the community of scientists and students conducting research on the topics of biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds to the atmosphere and their effects on atmospheric chemistry.” “As you can see from the publications produced from the ­EXPRESSO campaigns, African colleagues were a central component of the study. More recently, Alex has organized studies in Brazil as part of the NASA LBA [Large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia] effort. Once again, in that study, he has organized research teams around collaborations of both North American and South American scientists to conduct the research. Thus, in all of his recent research activities, Alex Guenther has applied the normal operating paradigm of bringing together scientists from around the globe to converge on common topics involving vegetation-atmosphere interactions.”

Alex B. Guenther clearly merits the Yoram J. Kaufman Award for broad influence in atmospheric science through exceptional creativity, inspiration of younger scientists, mentoring, international collaborations, and unselfish cooperation in research.

Response

I am honored by this award and the kind words from my colleagues. It is both rewarding and humbling to be recognized for “exceptional creativity, inspiration of younger scientists, mentoring, international collaborations, and unselfish cooperation in research.” I have been incredibly blessed by opportunities to accomplish this while simply doing what I enjoy.

Although there are still examples of science being advanced by individuals working in solitude, the collaborative approach in the manner of Yoram Kaufman is increasingly necessary. I learned this as a graduate student with Brian Lamb and others in the Laboratory for Atmospheric Research (LAR) at Washington State University, in Pullman. The LAR team is one of the best examples of unselfish and effective cooperation that I have experienced. My career at NCAR, with an institutional emphasis on serving the community, provided an exceptional opportunity to tackle scientific challenges associated with understanding the role of reactive trace gases in the coupling between the physical, chemical, and biological processes operating across the relevant scales of the Earth system. This undertaking requires collaborative efforts of a multidisciplinary and global community of scientists sharing the reward of exciting discoveries and the steady advancement of knowledge. I am especially indebted to the teamwork and excellence of the NCAR Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions group members including students, postdoctoral scientists, and visitors with whom it has been my pleasure to work. My enjoyment of this research was greatly enhanced by the overwhelming hospitality of field study hosts in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, and South and North America.

Above all, I am thankful for the support, guidance, and encouragement of my family. My parents and brothers provided my first and most important examples of unselfish cooperation and community building. My wife and children graciously endured my absences while I was traveling around the world. I could not have accomplished anything without them.

Noah Diffenbaugh received the James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award at the 2006 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes outstanding research contributions by a junior atmospheric scientist within 3 years of his or her Ph.D.

Citation

Noah Diffenbaugh is a truly interdisciplinary geoscientist who has already made significant contributions to the field of highresolution climate modeling. His interests are varied and include climate/carbon dioxide/vegetation interactions, the response of extreme temperatures and precipitation events as well as the response of eastern boundary current regions to anthropogenic radiative forcing, mechanisms of Holocene climate variability, and the potential impacts of future climate on human systems. An outcome of his climate studies is the discouraging prognosis for U.S., especially California, viticulture and enology in light of anticipated global warming. Noah is at the forefront of computational high-resolution climate modeling, which will become an essential tool for policy planners by providing details that cannot be simulated by global models.

In the relatively short time that he has been at Purdue, Noah has played a critical role in developing our interdisciplinary program, including the establishment of a climate change research center. His contributions to date and his anticipated innovative work on the impacts of climate change on phytonatural and human systems make him an ideal recipient of the James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award.

Response

I am deeply honored to receive this award. I hold AGU in the highest regard, and I am particularly honored that it comes from the Atmospheric Sciences Section. My interests are rather eclectic, and I often wonder if I actually am an atmospheric scientist! It is also very inspiring and very humbling that the award bears James Holton’s name. One of my students keeps a copy of An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology just to the left of his keyboard—I see it nearly every day.

I have been very fortunate in my short career to have a number of fantastic mentors, including my Ph.D. advisor Lisa Sloan, Paul Koch, Patrick Bartlein, and Filippo Giorgi. They have all provided excellent guidance, have been more than generous with so many resources, and above all have been great collaborators. I have also been fortunate to have a number of other outstanding colleagues and collaborators—many of whom I first met at the AGU Fall Meeting—and these interactions are ultimately what make this job so much fun. Further, I have received tremendous support at Purdue University, which has provided a fantastic platform for pursuing my intellectual interests.

I feel extremely blessed to be an Earth scientist. In spite of all of its challenges, Earth really is a beautiful planet! As scientists, we are very lucky to have the freedom to ask questions, to pursue the answers, to be proven right, to be proven wrong. For me there is no greater professional thrill than viewing the results of an experiment for the first time. It can be a brutally humbling job, but that society affords us the opportunity to feel this thrill on a daily basis is a great privilege.

It is daunting that an award given at such an early stage bears the name of someone whose career was as exceptional as Holton’s. I thank the Section for this great honor, and I hope I can live up to it!

Simona Bordoni received the 2009 James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award at the 2009 AGU Fall Meeting, held 14–18 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes outstanding research contributions by a junior atmospheric scientist within 3 years of his or her Ph.D.

Citation

At this early stage in her career, Simona Bordoni has become a specialist in monsoon meteorology, advancing our understanding of the mesoscale dynamics of the North American monsoon and identifying fundamentals of the dynamics of large-scale monsoon circulations worldwide. Her work on monsoon dynamics published in Nature Geoscience and elsewhere describes truly exciting research. These form a set of very innovative papers, ranging from careful observational studies to highly theoretical general circulation model studies.

As a student, she was considered one of the “most talented and mature,” not only in her class but also “in a decade of students at University of California, Los Angeles” (UCLA). Her seminars have been described as “exceptionally clear,” a skill she is no doubt using regularly now since beginning as an assistant professor at California Institute of Technology this fall.

On behalf of the Atmospheric Sciences section of AGU, I would like to congratulate Simona Bordoni for being selected as this year’s recipient of the James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award.

Response

I am deeply honored and humbled to receive an award from the AGU Atmospheric Sciences section that bears the name of James Holton.

I did not have the pleasure of meeting Jim personally, but I still remember a very inspiring lecture that he gave at UCLA during my very first quarter there as a graduate student. Since then and through the years, I have become even more appreciative of Jim’s scientific excellence and outstanding contribution to atmospheric dynamics by studying many of his papers, interacting with students he mentored and colleagues he worked with, and learning from and, now as an instructor myself, teaching out of his textbook.

People who have contributed to my personal and scientific growth during these first few years of my career have been numerous, and I cannot thank them all here. However, I would like to acknowledge those who have been the most influential: Bjorn Stevens, my Ph.D. advisor at UCLA, who has provided excellent guidance yet has given me the freedom and encouragement to explore my own research interests; Tapio Schneider at California Institute of Technology, coadvisor in the last 2 years of my Ph.D. work and postdoctoral advisor, who has shaped my view of the general circulation of the atmosphere and has motivated exciting research; and Maura Hagan, National Center for Atmospheric Research deputy director and director of the Advanced Study Program, who has provided continuous support during my Advanced Study Program postdoc and represents a great role model for women in science.

I have just joined the faculty at California Institute of Technology in fall 2009.

I am very excited at the opportunity to build my own research program and group and to teach future generations of atmospheric scientists. It is very inspiring to receive at this early stage of my career this award, named after somebody whose career was as successful and exceptional as James Holton’s was. I thank the section for this honor, and I hope my future work will reflect the excitement and scientific excellence that this award embodies.

William R. Boos received the 2010 James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award at the 2010 AGU Fall Meeting, held 13–17 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes outstanding research contributions by a junior atmospheric scientist within 3 years of his or her Ph.D.

Citation

The AGU Atmospheric Sciences section has awarded the 2010 James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award to William R. Boos, an assistant professor at Yale University, New Haven, Conn. His qualifications for the award are best expressed by the nomination letters. One pointed out that his Ph.D. dissertation “contributed significantly to our understanding of the role of wind induced surface heat exchange on monsoon onset, both theoretically and observationally, and reflected a deep and broad understanding of monsoons and general aspects of tropical meteorology.” In addition, as documented in a 2010 paper in Nature, “Among other accomplishments, Bill showed that the conventional view that the Asian monsoon is driven primarily by heating of the Tibetan Plateau…is probably wrong; instead, it seems to be driven by surface fluxes from the Bay of Bengal, aided by the prevention of southward flow of low entropy air by the Himalayan range.” “This is a very fundamental contribution to our understanding of the South Asian monsoon” and “will impact the field for many years to come.”

Response

It is a surprise and an honor to receive the James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award, and I am humbled and a bit embarrassed to see my name now following the list of previous recipients of the award. As someone who works in the field of atmospheric dynamics, it is a particular privilege to receive an award in the name of Jim Holton, who was such a prominent dynamicist. And since I work on the tropical atmosphere in particular, it is an honor to be presented the award by Peter Webster, who has made so many contributions to the field of tropical meteorology and climate. It seems like not very long ago that I was a new graduate student deciding to focus my thesis on monsoon dynamics, wondering if I was choosing a small, niche field that was of little interest to the broader Earth science community. So it is affirming to see this recognition of the importance of monsoon circulations and the role they play in both regional climate and the general circulation of the atmosphere.

There are many friends, family, and colleagues I would like to thank, but I will limit my attention now to Kerry Emanuel, my graduate school advisor, and Zhiming Kuang, my postdoctoral advisor. Both of them provided invaluable scientific guidance, mentoring, and support for which I am deeply thankful.