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AMOS Awards 2018
AMOS is please to announce the following:
The Uwe Radok Award for the best PhD thesis of 2017 has been awarded to Dr Catherine A. Vreugdenhil
The Uwe Radok Award is for the best PhD thesis in the AMOS fields of oceanography, glaciology or climatology, awarded in Australia. It honours the contributions of Dr Uwe Radok who was one of Australia’s pioneers in meteorological and glaciological research. He was Head of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Melbourne from 1960 to 1977, and played a leading role in the development of Australian Antarctic meteorology and glaciology. The Uwe Radok Award for the best PhD thesis of 2017 has been awarded to Dr Catherine A. Vreugdenhil for her thesis entitled “The effects of convection in geostrophic circulation: insights into ocean heat transport and energy budget”, awarded by the Australian National University. Dr Vreugdenhil’s research investigated rotating thermal convection in the form of large-scale geostrophic circulation, and the coupling of this circulation with deep convection. Her research involved laboratory experiments with a rectangular convection tank on a rotating platform, as well as computational simulations in which the convection and turbulence were fully resolved. She demonstrated that buoyancy-driven flow is very efficient at transferring heat, implying that surface buoyancy forcing is a primary contributor to the energy budget. Her PhD research has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research and Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
The 2018 Morton Medal has been awarded to Professor Christian Jakob
The Morton Medal recognises leadership in meteorology, oceanography, climate and related fields, particularly through education and the development of young scientists, and through the building of research environments in Australia. The Medal recognises the achievements of Bruce Rutherfurd Morton who was a professor of applied mathematics at Monash University from 1967 until his retirement in 1991. Bruce was a true mentor to his students and young colleagues. The 2018 Morton Medal has been awarded to Professor Christian Jakob. Professor Jakob is a profoundly important researcher, teacher and mentor in AMOS related disciplines with an impact in Australia and worldwide. Christian received his PhD in meteorology from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich Germany in 2001 after an already established career at ECMWF, which commenced in 1993. From 2002-2007 he held research scientist positions at the Bureau of Meteorology, and since 2007 has been Professor of Climate Modelling at Monash University. His scientific interests centre on clouds, convection and the water cycle, and how these processes are represented in weather and climate models. He is a superb mentor to students and early career scientists and is deeply concerned about their scientific and personal development, and the wellbeing of students and colleagues. Christian is a passionate and inspiring educator. At Monash University, he has developed and delivered innovative courses, while internationally he has organized important graduate schools such as a Gordon Research Conference.
The 2018 Meyers Medal has been awarded to Dr Adele Morrison
The Meyers Medal acknowledges high-quality and innovative contributions by young researchers in the early stages of their academic career to the sciences covered by AMOS. The Medal honours the memory of Dr Gary Meyers who was a highly respected leader of scientist and a gracious and generous mentor as well as being an innovative researcher in his own right. The 2018 Meyers Medal has been awarded to Dr Adele Morrison. Dr Morrison is a highly productive research scientist who has made significant contributions to the field of Southern Ocean dynamics and its impact on the climate and ecosystem. Her papers on eddy saturation, ocean heat uptake and Southern Ocean upwelling each represent highly original contributions to the field. She already has 17 published journal papers, including four influential Nature group publications and has been invited to speak at numerous international meetings. She published three excellent journal papers from her PhD thesis, including the first demonstration (and physical explanation) of why eddy saturation and eddy compensation are physically distinct phenomena. This result solved one of the most topical problems in Southern Ocean dynamics. Since her return to Australia in 2017, Dr Morrison has used the experience she gained in the US to make key contributions to ocean model development. She has configured a global ocean model with excellent representation of the circulation close to Antarctica, and used this model to show new controls on the flux of warm water onto the Antarctic shelves
The 2018 Gibbs Medal has been awarded to Dr Michael Pook
The Gibbs Medal recognises long and distinguished service to operational forecasting. The Medal honours the contributions of ex-Director of Meteorology WJ (Bill) Gibbs in shaping and transforming operational meteorology in the Bureau of Meteorology in the 1960s and 1970s. The 2018 Gibbs Medal has been awarded to Dr Michael Pook. Mike was a senior forecaster in the Hobart office of the Bureau of Meteorology, a long-time weather presenter on ABC television in Tasmania, and a senior research scientist in CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research. He has also presented lectures at the University of Tasmania and elsewhere, and held many AMOS positions over his long career. Mike has made an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the connection between weather and climate in the Australian region. He developed a 50-year synoptic classification of rainfall events in southeast Australia which has led to seminal understanding of the climate system, the influence of climate drivers, rainfall trends and the diagnosis of climate model performance. This work has changed the way he and others communicate seasonal climate forecasts and the associated weather events to the agricultural community. Mike has helped forecasters, researchers and communicators to bridge the timescales between familiar weather events such as fronts and cutoff lows, through medium timescale events such as atmospheric blocking and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), to the seasonal timescales of ENSO and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).
The 2018 (inaugural) AMOS Science Outreach Award has been awarded to Dr Andrew King
The AMOS Science Outreach Award recognises AMOS outreach ambassadors, who inspire other AMOS members to undertake science engagement activities, and additionally recognizes those who engage with the public, politicians, schools, businesses and communities, to educate and inform those groups on topics associated with AMOS themes. The 2018 (inaugural) AMOS Science Outreach Award has been awarded to Dr Andrew King of Melbourne University. Since receiving his PhD about four years ago Andrew has developed into one of our country’s most prominent commentators on climate change, and demonstrated a mastery of science communication and outreach. Andrew has been a prominent contributor to The Conversation, writing 42 articles over the last four years. The focus of his writing has been on climate change and climate extremes. Many of his pieces are motivated by current events, like hurricanes, storms, or heatwaves, which also necessitates Andrew dropping everything to get an article out quickly. His articles effectively explain the processes and phenomena and also place the events in the context of climate change and variability. He writes these articles in such a way to make complicated scientific concepts and methods accessible and understandable to the lay audience, and is very effective in doing so. Andrew is also regularly contacted by the media to provide background information or commentary. He has become one of the go-to experts on many aspects of weather and climate. In fact, he has been quoted or appeared in the media on more than 250 occasions in the last four years.
Further Information: Contact AMOS Awards Committee at awards@amos.org.au
