The following American Geophysical Union (AGU) members received Outstanding Student Paper Awards at the 2015 Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Calif. Winners have individual pages on AGU’s website.
Atmospheric and Space Electricity
Coordinator: Morris Cohen
Neal Dupree, University of Florida, Oceanic lightning versus continental lightning: VLF peak current discrepancies
Jackson McCormick, Georgia Institute of Technology, X-ray solar flare induced ionospheric perturbations observed by VLF sferics
Atmospheric Sciences
Coordinators: Shannon Capps, Sue Chen, Yongyun Hu, Roya Mortazavi
Sabour Baray, York University, Quantifying sources of methane in the Alberta oil sands
Quentin Coopman, University of Utah, University of Lille, Effect of long-range aerosol transport on the microphysical properties of low-level clouds in the Arctic
Khaled Ghannam, Duke University, Closure of the heat flux budget with the ejection-sweep cycle in the convective atmospheric boundary layer
Leah Grant, Colorado State University, Cold pool and surface flux interactions in different environments
Karl Lapo, University of Washington Seattle, Evaluating patterns of solar irradiance errors over an area of complex topography
Michael McClellan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Measurement and modeling of site-specific nitrogen and oxygen isotopic composition of atmospheric nitrous oxide at Mace Head, Ireland
Erin McDuffie, University of Colorado Boulder, Toward a quantitative assessment of the influence of regional emission sources on ozone production in the Colorado Front Range
Gergana Mouteva, University of California, Irvine, Spatial and temporal variations of EC and OC aerosol combustion sources in a polluted metropolitan area
Kyle Nardi, Temple University, The climatology and impacts of atmospheric rivers near the coast of southern Alaska
Peer Nowack, University of Cambridge, Troposphere-stratosphere coupled chemistry-climate interactions: From global warming projections to air quality
Steven R. Schill, University of California, San Diego, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Development and application of a hygroscopicity basis set for the analysis of the mixing state of nascent sea spray aerosols
Kate Skog, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Formation of epoxide derived SOA and gas-phase acids through aqueous aerosol processing in the southeastern United States during SOAS
Ivy Tan, Yale University, Observational constraints on mixed-phase clouds imply higher climate sensitivity
Alexander Teng, California Institute of Technology, Isoprene peroxy radical dynamics: Constraints from laboratory studies
Jordis Tradowsky, Free University of Berlin, A site atmospheric state best estimate of temperature for Lauder, New Zealand
Ian Philip White, University of Bath, Dynamical response to the QBO in the northern winter stratosphere: Signatures in wave forcing and eddy fluxes of potential vorticity
Wei Wu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Contrasting ice microphysical properties of wintertime frontal clouds and summertime convective clouds
Lu Xu, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ubiquitous presence of particle-phase organic nitrates in the southeastern United States
Biogeosciences
Coordinator: Susan Natali
Kristofer Covey, Yale University, Mapping tree density at the global scale
Amanda D’Elia, University of California, Davis, Deep carbon stocks in a California Delta floodplain: Evidence for long term sequestration potential of seasonally inundated soils
Loïc Dutrieux, Wageningen University, Reconstructing land use history from Landsat time-series. Case study of swidden agriculture intensification in Brazil
Anne Griebel, University of Melbourne, Effect of non-homogeneity in flux footprint on the interpretation of seasonal, annual, and interannual ecosystem carbon exchange
Matthew Robert Hiatt, University of Texas at Austin, River delta network hydraulic residence time distributions and their role in coastal nutrient biogeochemistry
Tyler Hoecker, University of Montana, Spatiotemporal trends in late-Holocene fire regimes in arctic and boreal Alaska
Maria de los Angeles Gallego Mingo, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Explaining two centers of pCO2 and CO2 flux variability in the equatorial Pacific induced by ENSO
Eugenie Paul-Limoges, ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Contributions of understory and overstory to ecosystem CO2 fluxes in a temperate mixed forest in Switzerland
Victoria Scholl, Rochester Institute of Technology, Assessing and adapting LiDAR-derived pit-free canopy height model algorithm for sites with varying vegetation structure
Bingjie Shi, University of Waterloo, Importance of tetrahedral iron during microbial reduction of clay mineral NAu-2
Cryosphere
Coordinators: Ellyn Enderlin, Kaitlin Keegan, Dan McGrath, Lucas Zoet
Ryan Cassotto, University of New Hampshire, Large response to precipitation and tidal forcing at Columbia Glacier imaged with terrestrial radar interferometry
Winnie Chu, Columbia University in the City of New York, Extensive subglacial hydrological network and basal temperate layer in Southwest Greenland: An integrated approach of radar analysis and ice sheet modeling
Luca Foresta, University of Edinburgh, Mass balance of Icelandic ice caps from CryoSat swath mode altimetry
Nicholas Holschuh, Pennsylvania State University, Englacial structures as indicators of the controls on ice flow
Felix Matt, University of Oslo, Hydrological response to black carbon deposition in seasonally snow covered catchments in Norway using two different atmospheric transport models
Brice Noel, Utrecht University, A downscaled 1 km dataset of daily Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance components (1958-2014)
Deepak Singh, University of Michigan, Impact of dust on Mars surface albedo and energy flux with LMD general circulation model
Donald Slater, University of Edinburgh, Co-evolution of tidewater glacier calving front morphology and submarine melt rates in a high resolution ocean model
Yvonne Smith, University of Leeds, Exploring Northern Hemisphere ice sheet variability in the Pliocene using ice rafted debris records and iceberg trajectory modelling
Earth and Planetary Surface Processes
Coordinators: Ken Ferrier, Xiaofeng Liu
Jonathan A. Czuba, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Near-channel sediment sources now dominate in many agricultural landscapes: The emergence of river-network models to guide watershed management
Jaap Nienhuis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wave-driven tidal inlet migration: Mechanics and effects on barrier morphology
Laura Reynolds, University of California, Santa Barbara, Dating historical sediments in estuaries: A multi-proxy approach
Charles Shobe, University of Colorado Boulder, Big blocks and river incision: A numerical modeling perspective
Lauren Shumaker, Stanford University, Constraining the formation of submarine gullies on continental slopes
Matthew David Weber, University of California, Davis, Fluvial change processes during an exceptional drought punctuated by atmospheric rivers
Earth and Space Science Informatics
Coordinators: Mohamed Aly, Xiaogang Ma, Jonathan Petters, Som Sharma
James Ryan, University of Arizona, EarthCubed: Community convergence and communication
Education
Coordinator: Stacie Bender
John Leeman, Pennsylvania State University, Podcasting as a medium to share STEAM fields
Geodesy
Coordinators: Olivier de Viron, Rowena Lohman, Emily Montgomery-Brown
Stefanie Kaboth, Utrecht University, Glacial-interglacial sea level reconstruction of the last 570 kyr: Inferences from a new benthic 18O record of IODP Site U1386 (Gulf of Cadiz)
Hélène Le Mével, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Magma injection models to quantify reservoir dynamics at Laguna del Maule volcanic field, Chile, between 2007 and 2015
Patricia MacQueen, Colorado School of Mines, Down conversion of ambient seismic noise as a tool to detect non-linearity and estimate instrument noise levels in a gravity meter
Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism
Coordinator: Julie Bowles
Annemarieke Béguin, Utrecht University, Micromagnetic tomography in practice
Anna Mittelholz, University of British Columbia, Global-scale external magnetic fields at Mars from Mars Global Surveyor data
Global Environmental Change
Coordinator: Wenhong Li
Melanie K. Behrens, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Trace element inputs to the upper West Pacific from Nd isotopes and rare earth elements
Rebecca Caldwell, Indiana University, Developing a truly global delta database to assess delta morphology and morphodynamics
Elizabeth H. Camp, Portland State University, Mean kinetic energy budget of wakes within model wind farms: Comparison of an array of model wind turbines and porous discs
Veronique Oldham, University of Delaware, The complexation of Mn(III) in the sediments and water column of two coastal estuaries
Hydrology
Coordinators: Newsha Ajami, Terri Hogue, Kolja Rotzoll, Laurel Saito, Tara Troy
Scott T. Allen, Louisiana State University, Stable isotopes indicate within-canopy processes during interception of rainfall
Maartje Boon, Imperial College London, 3D observations of dispersion, mixing and reaction in heterogeneous rocks
Andrea Cominola, Polytechnic University of Milan, Modeling and managing urban water demand through smart meters: Benefits and challenges from current research and emerging trends
David Dralle, University of California, Berkeley, Using statistical mechanics and entropy principles to interpret variability in power law models of the streamflow recession
Lauren Foster, Colorado School of Mines, Energy budget changes impact arid mountain hydrology more than rain-snow transitions
Abby G. Frazier, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Rainfall trends through time: A running trend analysis of Hawaiian rainfall
Danielle Grogan, University of New Hampshire, The use and re-use of unsustainably mined groundwater: A global budget
Francisco J. Guerrero, Oregon State University, Reconstructing historical changes in watersheds from environmental records: An information theory approach
Skuyler Herzog, Colorado School of Mines, Engineered hyporheic zones as novel water quality best management practice: Flow and contaminant attenuation in constructed stream experiments
Faye Jackson, University of Birmingham, Understanding and predicting spatio-temporal variability of temperature in Scotland’s rivers: Implications for riparian land management
Tyler King, Utah State University, High resolution channel geometry from repeat aerial imagery
Bonnie McGill, Michigan State University, Agricultural liming, irrigation, and carbon sequestration
Lieke Melsen, Wageningen University, Parameter transferability across spatial and temporal resolutions in hydrological modelling
Kevin Roche, Northwestern University, Turbulent hyporheic exchange in permeable sediments
Zeinab Takbiri, University of Minnesota, Microwave signatures of inundation area
Yumeng Tao, University of California, Irvine, Precipitation estimation from remotely sensed data using deep neural network
Natalie Teale, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Synoptic-scale atmospheric conditions associated with flash flooding in watersheds of the Catskill Mountains, New York, USA
Kathryn Wheeler, University of Delaware, Leaf leachate chemistry: Regional variation across three watersheds in the northeastern United States
Tiantian Xiang, Arizona State University, Impact of land surface conditions on the predictability of hydrologic processes and mountain-valley circulations in the North American monsoon region
Gang Zhao, Texas A&M University, Sensitivity of reservoir storage and outflow to climate change in a water-limited river basin
Mineral and Rock Physics
Coordinator: Heather Watson
Satoru Asayama, Osaka University, Ultrafine particles preserved in the fault gouge of the Arima-Takatsuki Tectonic Line, Japan
Tess Caswell, Brown University, Creep and the characteristic length scale of strain-energy dissipation in polycrystalline ice; implications for tidal dissipation
Bethany Chidester, University of Chicago, Metal-silicate partitioning of lithophile elements at high pressures and temperatures
Natural Hazards
Coordinators: Phu Nguyen, Daniel Write
Rui Chen, Northwestern University, Determination of tsunami warning criteria for current velocity
Qingkai Kong, University of California, Berkeley, Smartphone MEMS accelerometers and earthquake early warning
Pablo Valenzuela, University of Oviedo, BAPA Database: A landslide inventory in the Principality of Asturias (NW Spain) by using press archives and free cartographic servers
Near Surface Geophysics
Coordinators: Xavier Comas, Fred Day-Lewis, Sarah Kruse, George Tsoflias
Nils Gueting, Forschungszentrum Jülich, High resolution imaging of aquifer properties using full-waveform GPR tomography
Seogi Kang, University of British Columbia, Revisiting the time domain induced polarization technique, from linearization to inversion
Megan Miller, Arizona State University, Spatiotemporal distribution of strain field and hydraulic conductivity at the Phoenix valley basins, constrained using InSAR time series and time-dependent models
Henry Schreiner, University of Texas at Austin, Measurement over large solid angle of low energy cosmic ray muon flux
Emily Voytek, Colorado School of Mines, Identifying hydrologic flowpaths on arctic hillslopes using electrical resistivity and self potential
Nonlinear Geophysics
Coordinator: Kunlun Bai
Noah Gabriel Randolph-Flagg, University of California, Berkeley, Evenly-spaced columns in the Bishop Tuff as relicts of hydrothermal convection
Ocean Sciences
Coordinator: Victoria Coles
Chawalit Charoenpong, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stable isotope evidence for abiotic ammonium production in the hydrothermal vent fluids from the Mid-Cayman Rise
Emily Newsom, University of Washington, The strong control of sea ice dynamics on lower cell circulation changes
Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology
Coordinator: Matthew Kirby
Benjamin Hatchett, University of Nevada, Reno, A medieval perspective of historical California and Nevada droughts
Allison Jacobel, Columbia University, 130 kyr of dust fluxes in the equatorial Pacific: Implications for ITCZ movement and intensity
Julia Kelson, University of Washington, Reconciling empirical carbonate clumped isotope calibrations: A comparison of calcite precipitation and acid digestion methods
Planetary Sciences
Coordinators: Nathan Bridges, Sarah Stewart
Madison Douglas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Analysis of volcanic deposits on venus using radar polarimetry
Peter Gao, California Institute of Technology, Frozen fractals all around: Aggregate particles in the plumes of Enceladus
Kynan Hughson, University of California, Los Angeles, Preliminary geological map of the Ac-H-5 Fejokoo Quadrangle of Ceres: An integrated mapping study using Dawn spacecraft data
Lauren Jozwiak, Brown University, Intrusive magmatism and explosive volcanism on the Moon and Mercury: Insights from floor-fractured craters
Public Affairs
Coordinators: Denise Hills, Linda Rowan
Maya K. Buchanan, Princeton University, Allowances for evolving coastal flood risk under uncertain local sea-level rise
Kimberley Corwin, Boise State University, Preparing for volcanic hazards: An examination of lahar knowledge, risk perception, and preparedness around Mount Baker and Glacier Peak, WA
Jill Shipman, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Developing short films of geoscience research
Seismology
Coordinator: Miaki Ishii
Karianne Bergen, Stanford University, Unsupervised approaches for post-processing in computationally efficient waveform-similarity-based earthquake detection
Daniel C. Bowman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, High altitude infrasound measurements using balloon-borne arrays
Laurence Cowton, University of Cambridge, Volumetric measurements of a thin CO2-saturated layer through time at the Sleipner Field, North Sea
Andreas Mavrommatis, Stanford University, Repeating earthquakes confirm and constrain long-term acceleration of aseismic slip preceding the M9 Tohoku-Oki earthquake
Pamela Moyer, University of New Hampshire, Constraining earthquake source parameters in rupture patches and rupture barriers on Gofar transform fault, East Pacific Rise from ocean bottom seismic data
Marija Mustac, Australian National University, Contending non-double-couple source components with hierarchical Bayesian moment tensor inversion
Frederic Wagner, Uppsala University, Migration based event detection and automatic P- and S-phase picking in Hengill, southwest Iceland
Space Physics and Aeronomy
Coordinator: Elizabeth Mitchell
Prayitno Abadi, Nagoya University, East-west asymmetric of scintillation occurrence in Indonesia using GPS and GLONASS observations
Haoming Liang, University of California, Los Angeles, Impact of heavy ions on reconnection rate and dipolarization fronts during magnetotail reconnection
Andrew Marsh, University of California, Santa Cruz, The NuSTAR sensitivity to quiet-Sun transient events
Ryan M. McGranaghan, University of Colorado Boulder, Reconstruction of three-dimensional auroral ionospheric conductivities via an assimilative technique
Christian Nabert, Technical University of Braunschweig, Efficient estimation of MHD parameters from magnetosheath observations
Vu Nguyen, University of Colorado, Addressing the question of large-scale nonlinear wave coupling in the space-atmosphere interaction region
Anthony Saikin, University of New Hampshire, The geomagnetic condition dependence of the spatial distributions of EMIC waves observed by the Van Allen Probes
Pawel Swaczyna, Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Helium energetic neutral atoms—A new perspective for heliospheric and extraheliospheric observations with IMAP
Patrick Tracy, University of Michigan, Relative heating of heavy ions observed at 1 AU with ACE/SWICS
Hong Zhao, University of Colorado Boulder, The relative deep penetrations of energetic electrons and ions into the slot region and inner belt
Study of Earth’s Deep Interior
Coordinators: Allen McNamara, Laurent Montesi, Sabine Stanley
Lauren Harrison, University of British Columbia, The Hawaiian mantle plume from toe to head along the Northwest Hawaiian Ridge
Emmanuel Njinju, Oklahoma State University, Mid-lithospheric discontinuity beneath the Malawi Rift, deduced from gravity studies and its relation to the rifting process
Tectonophysics
Coordinators: Michele Cooke, Juli Morgan
Troy Barber, University of Texas at Arlington, Controls on the formation of pulverized off-fault rocks: Laboratory investigations using Arkansas Novaculite
Thomas Ferrand, Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris, High-pressure dehydration experiments of antigorite-olivine samples to explain seismicity in the lower Benioff plane
Dawei Gao, University of Victoria, On the possibility of slip-to-trench rupture in Cascadia megathrust earthquakes
Emily Hopper, Brown University, New insights on the final stages of the Appalachian orogeny in the southeast U.S.A.
Cassidy Jay, Purdue University, Kinematics and dynamics of the Main Ethiopian Rift
Junle Jiang, California Institute of Technology, Connecting depths of seismicity, fault locking, and coseismic slip using long-term fault models
Robert McDermott, Utah State University, Integrating hematite (U-Th)/He dating, microtextural analysis, and thermomechanical modeling to date seismic slip
Christopher Thom, University of Pennsylvania, Nanoscale characterization of fault roughness by atomic force microscopy
Sarah Weihmann, University of Aberdeen, Predicting fluid flow in stressed fractures: A quantitative evaluation of methods
Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology
Coordinators: Michael Bizimis, Eric Brown, Sarah Brownlee, Brian Dreyer, Nicholas Dygert, Qi Fu, Sarah Lambart, Noah McClean, Sean Mulcahy, Tyrone Rooney
Chelsea Allison, Arizona State University, The plumbing system of a highly explosive basaltic volcano: Sunset Crater, AZ
Thomas Benson, Stanford University, The oldest known caldera associated with the Yellowstone hotspot: New geologic mapping, geochemistry, and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology for the northern McDermitt volcanic field, northern Nevada and southeastern Oregon
Sophie Briggs, University of California, Santa Barbara, The P-T history of the Alpine Schist, New Zealand: Constraining tectonic processes during the late stages of Gondwana breakup
Andrew Fowler, University of California, Davis, Alteration of crystalline and glassy basaltic protolith by seawater as recorded by drill core and drill cutting samples
Elisabeth Gallant, University of South Florida, Lava flow hazard assessment for the Idaho National Laboratory: A probabilistic approach to modeling lava flow inundation with MOLASSES
Janine Krippner, University of Pittsburgh, The 2005 and 2010 dome collapse driven block and ash flows on Shiveluch volcano; Kamchatka: Morphological analysis using satellite- and field-based data
Emma Liu, University of Bristol, What controls the sizes and shapes of volcanic ash? Integrating morphological, textural and geochemical ash properties to decipher eruptive processes
Jillian Schleicher, University of Washington, Multiphase simulations constraining the characteristic volumes and efficiency of mixing within magmatic mushes
Sara Worsham, University of Saskatchewan, Using a novel Mg isotope tracer to investigate the dolomitization of the Red River Formation in the Williston Basin
Correction, 16 August 2016: A misspelling in a coordinator’s name was corrected.
Citation: AGU (2016), Outstanding Student Paper Awards, Eos, 97, doi:10.1029/2016EO045449. Published on 10 February 2016.
Text © 2016. The authors. CC BY-NC 3.0
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