Congratulations to Dr Peter May, Professor Moninya Roughan, and Associate Professor Ailie Gallant who have…
AMOS Awards 2024
| AMOS is delighted to announce the award recipients for 2024 as detailed below. We would also like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Awards Committees for the great work they do in running our Awards Program. |
| Uwe Radok Award |
| 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 he played a leading role in the development of Australian Antarctic meteorology and glaciology. The Uwe Radok award for best PhD thesis in 2023* has been awarded to Jordan Brook from the University of Queensland for his thesis titled “Radar-based methods for quantifying hailfall across varied spatial scales in Australia”. Of particular note was the development and implementation by Jordan of a novel hail trajectory model initialized by radar observations (HailTrack). This method is now in transition to operations at the Bureau of Meteorology, highlighting the operational impact of his outstanding research. This model shifts hailfall trajectories using a new 3D weather radar wind retrieval technique developed by Jordan and considered a gold standard by his examiners. The novel variational method for interpolating radar data to a standard mapping grid will likely be adopted by many in the radar community. Jordan was supervised by Hamish McGowan, with additional supervision and collaboration from Alain Protat, Joshua Soderholm and Matt Mason.*Uwe Radok Award is for previous year |
| Meyers Medal |
| The Meyers Medal acknowledges high-quality and innovative contributions by 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 scientists and a gracious and generous mentor as well as being an innovative researcher in his own right. The 2024 Meyers Medal has been awarded to Edward Doddridge, an oceanographer in the Australian Antarctic Partnership Program (AAPP), Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in Hobart. Edward’s work has advanced our understanding of ocean and climate processes in fundamentally important ways. His research combines analytical theory, numerical modelling, and observational analyses. He combines this broad range of approaches to address fundamental questions about ocean circulation and ocean-sea ice processes. His recent publications on Antarctic sea ice are strong examples of the timely and influential nature of his work. In addition to leading his own research, Edward co-chairs the Consortium for Ocean-Sea Ice Modelling in Australia (COSIMA) and supervises the research of three PhD students and a post-doc. He engages extensively with the media, delivering briefings to elected representatives, and contributed to the recent AMOS submission to the Senate Inquiry into the importance of Antarctica to Australia’s national interests. |
| Morton Medal |
| 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. It is named in honour of Professor Bruce Morton, who mentored a generation of atmospheric scientists and oceanographers, and actively supported AMOS to become a vibrant and national scientific society. The 2024 Morton Medal is awarded to Helen Cleugh. Through her own research, and especially through her research leadership and clear vision, Helen has had a profound positive impact on the national and international fabric of climate science and its people. As a micrometeorologist, Helen led OzFlux, the Australian contribution to the global FluxNet, and a key ingredient to understanding how energy, water and carbon is exchanged between the biosphere and the atmosphere in the landscape. Her leadership has been pivotal in establishing and maintaining the Australian Community Climate and Earth-System Simulator (ACCESS) and in co-developing the successful ACCESS National Research Infrastructure proposal to the Federal Government. She co-chaired the Australian Climate Change Science Programme from 2009-2017 and led the inaugural Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub under the National Environmental Science Programme (NESP). She also directed the CSIRO Climate Centre and served as Deputy Director of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research (CAWCR). All the above organisations have provided major capacity to Australia’s climate science efforts and have united the community. From 2019 to 2023, Helen served as Vice Chair of the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee. She has been a mentor and role model to many early and mid-career scientists. |
| Gibbs Medal |
| 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 2024 Gibbs Medal has been awarded to Mary Voice. Mary has been instrumental in the development and improvement of the Bureau of Meteorology’s Seasonal Climate Outlook service, and in its acceptance and use by society, especially the rural community. Through her efforts over more than a decade, farmers and others have been able to take advantage of improved understanding of the factors influencing Australia’s climate, thereby avoiding some of the risks of our variable climate. As leader of the operational climate prediction service, she led the introduction of operational seasonal outlooks based on sea surface temperature patterns, the introduction of coupled model forecasts into the outlook system, and oversaw the change from deterministic forecasts to probabilistic outlooks. Mary served AMOS as its Vice President during 2014-15 and President during 2016-17, and has held many other positions of responsibility with the Society, including overseeing two national conferences and the 30th anniversary symposium. |
| AMOS Science Outreach Award |
| 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 2024 AMOS Science Outreach Award has been awarded to Kimberley Reid,a Research Fellow with the Centre of Excellence for Weather of the 21st Century and The University of Melbourne. Kim’s outreach has spanned local and international outlets. She has written seven articles for The Conversation covering both her own research on extreme rainfall, and also topical events such as explaining the roles of climate change and El Niño in record-breaking events. In recognition of her exceptional science writing, The Conversation has nominated her for the Walkley Awards (twice) and a Quill Award. Kim often appears in written and broadcast media as an interviewee, including ABC News, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and CNA (Singapore). She has created engaging videos to explain climate science concepts and news on YouTube channel and TikTok, reaching younger audiences. She has personally helped and encouraged other early career researchers to get involved in science outreach. |
