Caitano da Silva is recognized for advancing our understanding of air heating effects on electrical gas discharge dynamics in lightning leaders and return strokes. He clearly established himself as a leading expert on the subjects of fundamental lightning physics. His journal articles are characterized by having a balance between experimental measurements and computer simulations. Professor da Silva’s main contribution to atmospheric electricity is related to advancing the understanding of how air heating affects the gas discharge dynamics of the lightning plasma. He is leading the front in topics such as streamer-to-leader transition, and the role of nonlinear plasma resistance in leader discharge propagation. To date Dr. da Silva and his students have published twenty-seven articles on topics of lightning initiation and narrow bipolar events, physics of lightning leaders and the return strokes, transient luminous events, laboratory gas discharges and their X-ray emissions, and waves in space plasmas. If we look into each of these subtopics, we will find further breadth. For instance, within the topic of transient luminous events, Dr. da Silva has contributed towards the understanding of sprites, gigantic jets, elves, and electron density changes in the lower ionosphere due to lightning and thunderstorms. Caitano has contributed extensively to American Geophysical Union through publications, serving as a reviewer, and as a convener of sessions. Dr. Caitano da Silva is an Associate Professor of Physics at New Mexico Tech, which houses the Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research. He is a recipient of NSF CAREER award. —Victor P. Pasko, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

It is an honor to receive such a prestigious award. I attend the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting every year, and we always bring a strong contingent from New Mexico Tech (NMT), including numerous students. I feel quite proud to see our work being recognized by the Atmospheric & Space Electricity (ASE) community within AGU. It is an exciting time to be part of the AGU-ASE community. The field is seeing an explosive growth in multi-platform, multi-band observations of electrical phenomena around Earth, and at the same time and explosive growth in the development and use of computer models, both data-driven and physics-based models. I anticipate we’ll see substantial progress made in our community in the next decade, and I am excited to be part of it. First, I’d like to thank my former advisors and mentors at UFSM, INPE, Penn State, & Dartmouth College for all their support. Second, I’d like to thank my colleagues at NMT, including all members of the Department of Physics and of the Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research. Finally, I’d like to thank all my current and former students. Without their contribution, the footprint of our group’s research would be substantially smaller. — Caitano L. da Silva, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology