Professor of Earth System Science and of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

AGU embraces the global community and welcomes diverse leaders from around the world, representing various identities, voices, and perspectives. List any identities, voices, and perspectives you would bring, including but not limited to nationality, regional representations, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and any other identity you feel comfortable sharing.

Like most in AGU, I am a voice for our planet. I study the climatic effects of biomass burning, cryosphere melt, and windblown dust. Of particular relevance to Earth and Space Science Informatics (ESSI), I also research, implement, and strongly advocate shifting to green computing methods, such as data compression that reduces data storage, power consumption, and associated greenhouse emissions. As geoscientists, we must become exemplars of planetary responsibility in how we conduct our research and organize our meetings.

My nationality, racial and ethnic background, and gender identification have been in the majority of our field since, well, forever. However, my mindset is forward-thinking and I embrace and foster equity. I led our department diversity efforts from 2012–2016 as Diverse Educational Community and Doctoral Experience (DECADE) Graduate Program Mentor. Half of my grad students since 1999 identify in under-represented groups (female, trans, Hispanic). In over 20 years I have responded to thousands of NCO/netCDF Help requests on public sites like SourceForge and StackOverflow where a large percentage of questions come from researchers with minimal resources. AGU should continue and expand initiatives for geoscientific capacity building in developing countries, island states, and the global south.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) member representative (2002-present) and Governance Task Group, 2022-present. Lead Convener of sessions at AGU (4), International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science (IAMAS; 2), European Geosciences Union (EGU; 1), and Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP; 1). AGU/Earth Cube/ESIP Data Help Desk volunteer at AGU, 2017-2020. Eos Science Advisor for Atmospheric Sciences, AGU, 2007-2008. NASA Dataset Interoperability Working Group, founding chair and member, 2013-2021. Climate & Forecast (CF) Convention co-author, netCDF-CF Workshop co-organizer (2017, 2018, 2021, 2022). PTA Parliamentarian, Executive Board Member, 2011-2013.

This leadership position is a liaison role; it is one that aims to catalyze community and build AGU as envisioned by the strategic plan. How will you engage with members of your section to advance AGU’s strategic plan? How will you facilitate engagement with other sections and people outside AGU to support our mission?

As a trans-disciplinary section, ESSI/Informatics is well poised to help AGU advance and embody its strategic plan. The plan commits AGU to “lead in open science and open data.” ESSI members have already helped AGU adopt and implement publication policies to enhance research reproducibility and extension, in part by making primary and processed data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). With its deep pool of informatics expertise, ESSI can continue to lead in informing and advising AGU data policies on emerging best practices for FAIR principles.

AGU also commits to “integrate new and emerging technologies into the practice and presentation of science.” ESSI includes leading practitioners of green computing and research that AGU could embrace. These include reduced carbon intensity for computations (e.g., via reduced precision computing), data storage (e.g., via lossy compression), and data transport (e.g., via cloud storage and server-side analysis). Encouraging use and publication of portable workflow notebooks (e.g., Jupyter) in AGU meetings and journals can accelerate science education and democratization. ESSI is the natural venue for spearheading, showcasing, and intercomparing the efficacy of technology trends among the domain sciences that comprise AGU. To promote technology infusion throughout AGU, Informatics sessions should, like Education sessions, receive an exception to the 1-abstract rule at meetings.

Section affiliations:

Atmospheric Sciences; Cryosphere Sciences; Earth and Space Science Informatics; Global Environmental Change