2020 AGU Honors: Shaping the Future of Science

Congratulations to the 2020 section award recipients and named lecturers!

The discoveries and solutions you have collectively made are remarkable. Each of you made tremendous personal sacrifices and selflessly dedicated yourselves to advancing the Earth and space sciences.

You have achieved outstanding accomplishments in your disciplines despite the recent challenges that our global community has faced. You have made important contributions to the scientific community by challenging, reinforcing, or reinvigorating all of us to think bigger, broader, or differently. Like those before you, each of your contributions has served as a building block to and for others to advance our understanding of Earth, its atmosphere and oceans, and space, including the planets and beyond.

We hope you take time to celebrate your well-deserved recognition. We also know that for each of you, there is a group of people who were invaluable to your success. To those mentors, supportive colleagues, friends, and loved ones, we are greatly appreciative of their efforts.

2020 awardees details:

  • 22 AGU sections gave 85 awards and honors
  • 7 awards are for students and postdocs
  • 24 winners are early-career scientists (up to 10 years post-Ph.D.)
  • 9 winners are midcareer (10–20 years post-Ph.D.)
  • 2 winners are senior scientists (experienced and an established leader)
  • 8 awards are given to honorees in the midcareer or senior career stage
  • 1 award is given to all career stages
  • 29 awards are for named lectureships. These are offered by AGU sections to recognize distinguished scientists with proven leadership in their fields of science.
  • 5 grants and scholarships

The 29 named lectureships offer unique opportunities to highlight the remarkable accomplishments of the awardees. AGU inaugurated the Bowie Lectures in 1989 to commemorate the 50th presentation of the William Bowie Medal, the highest honor given by the organization and named for AGU’s first president. This year’s Bowie Lecturers have an asterisk by their names in the list below. Please make sure to add these named lecturers to your calendars for #AGU20.

Finally, we are grateful to the nominators, nomination supporters, section leaders, and selection committees for selecting these well-deserving colleagues. Your volunteer hours are invaluable to our community.

Again, congratulations to the 2020 section awardees and named lecturers!

—Robin Bell, President and Council Chair, AGU; and LaToya Myles ([email protected]), Chair, Honors and Recognition Committee, AGU

Atmospheric and Space Electricity Section

Atmospheric and Space Electricity Early Career Award
Keri Nicoll, University of Reading

Atmospheric Sciences Section

Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award
Yafang Cheng, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Tracey Holloway, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Pavlos Kollias, Stony Brook University
Tristan S. L’Ecuyer, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Randall Martin, Washington University in Saint Louis

James R. Holton Award
Alexander Turner, University of California, Berkeley
Megan D. Willis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Yoram J. Kaufman Outstanding Research and Unselfish Cooperation Award
Abdelwahid Mellouki, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France

Jacob Bjerknes Lecture*
L. Ruby Leung, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Jule Gregory Charney Lecture*
Venkatachalam “Ram” Ramaswamy, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

Future Horizons in Climate Science: Turco Lectureship
Elizabeth A. Barnes, Colorado State University

Biogeosciences Section

Thomas Hilker Early Career Award for Excellence in Biogeosciences
Kelly C. Wrighton, Colorado State University

Sulzman Award for Excellence in Education and Mentoring
Nandita B. Basu, University of Waterloo

Cryosphere Sciences Section

Cryosphere Early Career Award
Helene L. Seroussi, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

John F. Nye Lecture
Isabella Velicogna, University of California, Irvine

Earth and Planetary Surface Processes Section

G. K. Gilbert Award in Surface Processes
Suzanne P. Anderson, University of Colorado Boulder

Luna B. Leopold Young Scientist Award
Jaap Nienhuis, Utrecht University

Marguerite T. Williams Award
Jane K. Willenbring, Stanford University

Robert P. Sharp Lecture
Jaap Nienhuis, Utrecht University

Earth and Space Science Informatics Section

Greg Leptoukh Lecture
Erin Robinson, Foundation for Earth Science

Geodesy Section

John Wahr Early Career Award
John R. Elliott, University of Leeds

William Bowie Lecture*
Maria T. Zuber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Geomagnetism, Paleomagnetism, and Electromagnetism Section

William Gilbert Award
Roger R. Fu, Harvard University

Edward Bullard Lecture*
Andrew P. Roberts, Australian National University

Global Environmental Change Section

Bert Bolin Global Environmental Change Award and Lecture
Benjamin D. Santer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Global Environmental Change Early Career Award
Rebecca R. Hernandez, University of California, Davis
Nathan Mueller, Colorado State University
Ning Lin,
Princeton University

Piers J. Sellers Global Environmental Change Mid-Career Award
Hong Liao, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

Stephen Schneider Lecture
Michael E. Mann, Pennsylvania State University

Tyndall History of Global Environmental Change Lecture
Gordon B. Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research

Hydrology Section

Hydrologic Sciences Early Career Award
Simone Fatichi, National University of Singapore
Veronica L. Morales, University of California, Davis
Ir. Niko Wanders, Utrecht University

Hydrologic Sciences Award
James S. Famiglietti, Global Institute for Water Security

Walter Langbein Lecture*
Rafael L. Bras, Georgia Institute of Technology

Paul A. Witherspoon Lecture
Giuliano Di Baldassarre, Uppsala University

Horton Research Grant
Molly R. Cain, Indiana University, Bloomington
Quincy Faber, University of Florida
Hyunglok Kim, University of Virginia

Mineral and Rock Physics Section

Mineral and Rock Physics Early Career Award
Marco Maria Scuderi, Sapienza University of Rome

Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award
Martin Lesueur, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Francesca Miozzi, University of Milan
Leif Tokle, Brown University

John C. Jamieson Student Paper Award
Rajkrishna Dutta, Princeton University
Cara Vennari, University of California, Santa Cruz

Natural Hazards Section

Natural Hazards Section Award for Graduate Research
Elise Monsieurs, Royal Museum for Central Africa

Natural Hazards Early Career Award
Ning Lin, Princeton University

Gilbert F. White Distinguished Award and Lecture
Augusto Neri, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Italy

Near-Surface Geophysics Section

Near-Surface Geophysics Early Career Achievement Award
Anja Klotzsche, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH

GSSI Student Grant
Mackenzie Vecchio, Florida Atlantic University

Nonlinear Geophysics Section

Donald L. Turcotte Award
Riddhi Bandyopadhyay, University of Delaware; currently at Princeton University

Ed Lorenz Lecture
Sandra C. Chapman, University of Warwick

Ocean Sciences Section

Ocean Sciences Voyager Award
Galen A. McKinley, Columbia University and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Rachel Carson Lecture
Drew Harvell, Cornell University

William S. and Carelyn Y. Reeburgh Lecture
Dennis A. Hansell, University of Miami

Harald Sverdrup Lecture 
Arnold L. Gordon, Columbia University

Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Section

Willi Dansgaard Award
James M. Russell, Brown University

Harry Elderfield Student Paper Award
Weiqi Yao, University of Toronto

Nanne Weber Early Career Award
David De Vleeschouwer, MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences

Planetary Sciences Section

Ronald Greeley Early Career Award in Planetary Sciences
Juan Manuel Lora, Yale University

Fred Whipple Award and Lecture
Robert O. Pepin, University of Minnesota

Eugene Shoemaker Lecture*
Jack H. Waite Jr., Southwest Research Institute

Seismology Section

Keiiti Aki Young Scientist Award
Weisen Shen, Stony Brook University

Beno Gutenberg Lecture*
Malcolm Sambridge, Australian National University

Space Physics and Aeronomy Section

Basu United States Early Career Award for Research in Sun–Earth Systems Science
Meghan Burleigh, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Fred L. Scarf Award
Parisa Mostafavi, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Space Physics and Aeronomy Richard Carrington Education and Public Outreach Award
Charles William Smith, University of New Hampshire

Sunanda and Santimay Basu International Early Career Award in Sun–Earth Systems Science 
Shiyong Huang, Wuhan University

William B. Hanson Lecture* 
Roderick A. Heelis, University of Texas at Dallas

Marcel Nicolet Lecture*
Kristina A. Lynch, Dartmouth College

James Van Allen Lecture* 
Robert L. McPherron, University of California, Los Angeles

Study of the Earth’s Deep Interior Section

Study of the Earth’s Deep Interior Section Award for Graduate Research 
Sarah M. Arveson, Yale University
Carver Jay Bierson, Arizona State University

Tectonophysics Section

Jason Morgan Early Career Award
Carolyn J. Boulton, Victoria University of Wellington

Francis Birch Lecture*
 Christie Rowe, McGill University

Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology Section

Hisashi Kuno Award
Claire E. Bucholz, California Institute of Technology

Norman L. Bowen Award and Lecture
Bradley R. Hacker, University of California, Santa Barbara

Reginald Daly Lecture*
Maud Boyet, University of Clermont Auvergne

Joint Award: Geodesy, Seismology, and Tectonophysics Sections

Paul G. Silver Award for Outstanding Scientific Service
Ramon Arrowsmith, Arizona State University
Douglas R. Toomey, University of Oregon

Joint Lecture: Biogeosciences and Planetary Sciences Sections

Carl Sagan Lecture
Compton James Tucker III, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Joint Lecture: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology and Ocean Sciences Sections

Cesare Emiliani Lecture
Elisabeth L. Sikes, Rutgers University

Joint Student Grant: Atmospheric Sciences and Space Physics and Aeronomy Sections

Dr. Edmond M. Dewan Young Scientist Scholarship
Michaela M. Rogers, Ohio State University
 
 
23 October 2020: This article was updated to include the winner of the Willi Dansgaard Award.

Citation:

Bell, R.,Myles, L. (2020), 2020 AGU section awardees and named lecturers, Eos, 101, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EO149870. Published on 30 September 2020.

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