HONORS AND AWARDS
 |
| Dr. Ping Yang |
Dr. Ping Yang (ATMO) received the American Geophysical Union's 2013 Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award for his research in transfer and remote sensing. The award recognizes Dr. Yang's excellence as a leader and researcher in Atmospheric Sciences.
It is the latest in a series of awards Dr. Yang has received for his research, dating back to 2000 when he won the award for best paper at the Climate and Radiation Branch at the NASA Goddard Flight Center, 2003 when he won an NSF CAREER Award, and 2004 when he was recognized by the college for his distinguished research. Dr. Yang will receive his award at the Atmospheric Sciences Section Banquet at the AGU fall meeting in December. He will receive a certificate and $1000 for his achievement. He is the second consecutive winner of the Ascent Award from Texas A&M. Dr. Andrew Dessler (ATMO) won the award in 2012.
Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon (ATMO) was named Outstanding Science Communicator by the Texas A&M University chapter of Sigma Xi. The award is presented annually to faculty members who demonstrate research and teaching excellence, make significant contributions to their profession and general science and exhibit superior skill and dedication in improving science education. Dr. Nielsen-Gammon won the award for his research on drought monitoring and forecasting as well as for his service as the Texas State Climatologist and writing about climate issues. The award was presented May 24 at the Sigma Xi Annual Induction and Awards Banquet.
EXPEDITIONS AND FIELD WORK
Dr. Steven DiMarco (OCNG) completed the 28th research trip, and the first of this season, investigating the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The crew, on board R/V Manta, sampled from East Matagorda Bayto the Southwest Pass on the western side of the Mississippi delta. The project is funded by NOAA.
Participants were: research scientist Drs. Matthew Howard and Ruth Perry (OCNG); graduate students, Laura Harred, Jordan Young, Yan Zhao, Heather Zimmerle, and Nicole Zuck, and marine technicians, Eddie Webb and Andrew Dancer (GERG). On shore investigators were oceanographers Drs. Lisa Campbell, Wilford Gardner, Shari Yvon-Lewis, and Ethan Grossman (GEPL), and Antonietta Quigg (TAMUG).
For more information about the cruise, see the news story at TAMUTimes.
PRESENTATIONS
Kai Gao* (GEPL) presented a poster paper at the KAUST-IAMCS Workshop on Modeling and Simulating Wave Propagation in May. The paper, "A Multiscale Method for Elastic Wave Equation Modeling," was also co-authored by Dr. Richard Gibson (GEPL), Shubin Fu, Yalchin Efendiev, and Eric Chung.
Dr. Reagan Errera (Post-doc, OCNG) and Darcie Ryan (OCNG) attended the Gordon Research seminar on Mycotoxins and Phycotoxins, June 15-16, at Stonehill College. Ryan presented "Karenia brevis reference transcriptome assembly and putative transmembrane protein discovery," while Dr. Errera served as a discussion leader.
*graduate student
PUBLICATIONS
Atmospheric Sciences
Sun, B., A. Reale, S. Schroeder, D. J. Seidel, and B. Ballish, 2013: Toward improved corrections for radiation-induced biases in radiosonde temperature observations. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 118, doi:10.1002/jgrd.50369.
Geology and Geophysics
Yancey, T.E., and Liu, C., 2013: Impact-Induced Sediment Deposition On An Offshore, Mud-Substrate Continental Shelf, Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary, Brazos River, Texas, U.S.A. Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 83, n. 4, p. 354-467.
Texas Sea Grant
Davis, C., J. Jacob, C. Powell, T. Sempier, R. Price, L. Bowier, D. Hwang, and D. Okimoto. Texas Homeowner's Handook to Prepare for Coastal Natural Hazards. (TAMU-SG-13-401).
SERVICE
Dr. David Cairns (GEOG) was elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS). The consortium of educational and scientific institutions--including Texas A&M---has a significant commitment to Arctic research and seeks to facilitate discussion on important developments in the field.
Dr. Robert Duce (OCNG/ATMO) participated in a meeting of the Ocean Research Advisory Panel (ORAP) in Washington, D.C., May 21 and 22. The ORAP is an advisory committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and is the only FACA body chartered to advise all ocean agencies.
Dr. Piers Chapman (OCNG) participated in a meeting between BP-funded researchers and the American Petroleum Institute to discuss his project's progress. The Center for Integrated Modeling and Analysis of the Gulf Ecosystem (C-IMAGE) organized the meeting.
GRANTS
Dr. Michael Tice (GEPL) is part of a team led through Rice University that won an NSF FESD grant for $4,210,000 over five years. As the Texas A&M PI, Dr. Tice received $410,991 over five years. The project, "Continent-siland arc fluctuations: linking deep Earth dynamics to long-term climate," examines linkages between deep Earth processes, tectonic cycles, climate and biogeochemical cycles in the Cretaceous. Dr. Tice and a graduate student will develop a high resolution record of volcanic ash input and carbon burial in the southern Western Interior Seaway in order to test for connections between arc volcanism and carbon burial.
STUDENT NEWS
Jeremy Johnson (GEOG) was awarded an NSF DDRI grant for his proposal, "Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Genetic Approach to Dispersal at the Alpine Treeline Ecotene."
Allison Myers-Pigg (OCNG-TAMUG) won the Chateaubriand Scholarship to study at the Polytechnic Institute in Toulouse, one of the premier polytechnic institutes in France. The Chateaubriand Scholarship is awarded each year by the government of France to approximately 40 Ph.D. students across all disciplines at American universities who wish to study for up to nine months at a university in France. Allison will be in Toulouse for five months.
Alicia Shepard (OCNG) was one of 21 students in the Texas A&M University System to receive a grant from the new Texas Sea Grant Grants-in-Aid of Graduate Research Program. The program gave out a total of $30,000 in grants to doctoral students whose marine- and coastal-related research is relevant to Texas.
The students in Wendy Jepson's (GEOG) Geography 430: Environmental Justice class developed and maintained a blog on the course throughout the spring semester. The blog discusses the impact of environmental issues on local communities and how local communities have responded to issues such as the Keystone XL pipeline. It is part of an initiative to commit to communicate about social justice issues.
Dehen Zhou (GEPL) received the 2013-2014 Texas A&M Energy Institute ConocoPhillips Fellowship.
