Dr. Maria “Masha” Kuznetsova is a rare scientist who is highly respected for her expertise in space weather and heliophysics (SWxH) modeling and simultaneously has invested heavily in engaging the worldwide science and forecasting communities to forge new collaborative approaches to SWxH understanding and prediction. In 2000 she played a pivotal role in founding NASA’s Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), an open-access repository and computational provider for SWxH models, tools and data streams. Since becoming CCMC director in 2012, Masha has innovatively expanded the CCMC’s services, ensuring inclusive access to ~100 (and growing) SWxH models from the Sun to planetary surfaces. The CCMC offers web-based user-friendly interfaces and visualization for these models, leading to ever-increasing numbers of international users and publications. By forging a close-knit, dedicated team, advertising the CCMC’s capabilities broadly, and providing visionary guidance, she has steadily advanced open science opportunities for the global SWxH community. Throughout her career, Masha’s open science contributions have had substantial and enduring impacts on SWxH research and modeling worldwide.

Strategic consensus building and inclusion are hallmarks of Masha’s leadership, recognizing the strength of a global voice for the SWxH community. She consistently contacts other U.S. and international SWxH organizations to collaborate, advocate jointly for global SWxH needs, and facilitate dissemination of their SWxH products. As the only heliophysicist on the National Academies Committee on Best Practices for a Future Open Code Policy for NASA Space Science, she co-authored its influential report and provided critical perspective on unique open science/open-source challenges for modelers. As chair of the Committee on Space Research’s (COSPAR) Panel on Space Weather, she disrupted the stifling old-boys network by initiating multiple pathways for community input and collaboration. For example, she created COSPAR’s International Space Weather Action Teams, a vibrant international partnership bringing together all career stages to address critical SWxH issues. Masha also has mentored numerous students, junior scientists and engineers, prioritizing next-generation career development and serving as an outstanding role model for AGU values.

Long before open science became a widespread concept, Masha embodied the inherent values of transparency, cooperation and sharing on a global scale. Her prescient leadership of the pioneering CCMC, coupled with her personal investment in open science programs and initiatives, has advanced scientific understanding, enabled early-career scientists to adopt leadership roles, and forged international partnerships that would not have occurred without her. The AGU Open Science Recognition Prize justly honors Masha’s long-term dedication to bringing open science to the global SWxH community.

—Judy Karpen
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland

—Michael Hartinger
Space Science Institute
Boulder, Colorado