AGU Atmospheric Science Section

Ralph Kahn and Ross Salawitch received the first Yoram J. Kaufman Unselfish Cooperation in Research Awards. Here they are, left-to-right, Warren Wiscombe (Past President of the Atmospheric Sciences Section), President Alan Robock, Ross Salawitch, President-Elect Anne Thompson, Jean Kaufman (Yoram's widow), and Ralph Kahn.

Last year, members of the Atmospheric Sciences Section contributed $43,410 to AGU's Voluntary Contribution Campaign. In 2008, due largely to member donations like these, AGU facilitated career development events attended by 600 students, hosted 75 K-12 teachers at Fall Meeting workshops, and sponsored 31 members' visits with U.S. policy makers. Additionally, voluntary contributions allowed AGU to provide travel grants to 135 deserving students to present their research for the first time at an AGU meeting. These programs are essential for AGU's relevance and vitality. We know Atmospheric Science members want AGU to do more. Please join us in supporting AGU's efforts to strengthen our scientific society by making a gift to the 2010 Voluntary Contribution Campaign. Unrestricted contributions are used to support AGU's greatest needs, but you can directly support students pursuing Atmospheric Sciences by making a gift to the David Hofmann Travel Grant, Holton-Kaufman Grant, or Namias Travel Grant. You can make your gift when you renew your AGU membership, or you can give today at: https://www.agu.org/givingtoagu/making_your_gift.php

Holton-Kaufman Fund. The James Holton-Yoram Kaufman Fund was just established to honor James Holton and Yoram Kaufman. The primary purpose is to fund the awards given in their names to winners of the two AS Section Awards, the James R. Holton Award and the Yoram J. Kaufman Award. The secondary purposes of the Fund are to support the Outstanding AS Student Paper awards for AGU meeting presentations and travel awards for young scientists from developing countries. Seeded with existing AS section resources, your contribution will grow the Fund and allow its income to be used for the above purposes. Click here to donate.

David J. Hofmann Student Travel Fund. David Hofmann, AGU Fellow and 47-year member, died recently. Dave was a great guy, a pioneer in scientific ballooning and lidar, a leader of in ozone and stratospheric aerosol research, and most recently, Director of the Global Monitoring Division of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. He traveled to Antarctica 19 times to conduct his studies. To honor his memory, NOAA has endowed a fund in his name to support travel of students to AGU meetings. Your contribution will allow the income to grow and allow the fund to support more students. Click here to donate. Once on the site, click on Atmospheric Sciences and select the donation “in memory of” and follow instructions from there. The donations will be included in AGU’s annual report.

Namias Fund. Jerome Namias, AGU Fellow and 50-year member, was an inspiration to several generations of meteorologists and climatologists. He was instrumental in developing the scientific basis for experimental forecasts as far as five days into the future, and became known as “the extreme forecaster.” Dr. Namias first became enthusiastic about the weather from a high school physics teacher. He helped establish the long-range forecasting branch of the US Weather Service and the Climate Research Division, and the Experimental Climate Prediction Center at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Named in his honor, this fund is used to encourage student participation in Atmospheric Sciences research, by giving travel grants to students to attend AGU meetings. This fund has already been established by a generous contribution from Jerry's widow, Edith Namias. Your contribution will allow the income to grow and allow the fund to support more students. Click here to donate.