The American Geophysical Union (AGU) announced its 2013 award, medal, and prize winners. These individuals are recognized for their breakthrough achievements in advancing Earth and space science and their outstanding contributions and service to the scientific community. According to the AGU, “their passion, vision, creativity, and leadership have expanded scientific understanding, illuminated new research directions, and made Earth and space science thrilling, immediate, and relevant to audiences beyond as well as within the scientific community.” The honorees will be recognized during the Honors Tribute at the 2013 AGU Fall Meeting, which will take place on 11 December 2013 in San Francisco.

The following AMS members received medals:

• William Bowie Medal—Raymond Roble, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
• James B. Macelwane Medal—Sonia Seneviratne, ETH Zurich
• Maurice Ewing Medal—Mark Cane, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
• Robert E. Horton Medal—Soroosh Sorooshian, University of California, Irvine
• Roger Revelle Medal—Kuo-Nan Liou, University of California, Los Angeles
• The following AMS members received awards:
• Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism—Geoffrey Haines-Stiles<, Passport to Knowledge/GHSPi
• Excellence in Geophysical Education Award—Tamara Ledley, Center for Science Teaching and Learning at TERC
• Charles S. Falkenberg Award—Chelle Gentemann, Remote Sensing Systems
• Athelstan Spilhaus Award—Iain Stewart, University of Plymouth
• Climate Communications Prize—Kevin Trenberth, NCAR

AGU also announced its 2013 class of Fellows. This honor is given to individual AGU members who have made exceptional scientific contributions and attained acknowledged eminence in the fields of Earth and space science. This designation is conferred upon not more than 0.1% of all AGU members in any given year. The following AMS members were elected as AGU Fellows:

David C. Goodrich, Agriculture Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Russell K. Monson, School of Natural Resources and the Environment and Laboratory for Tree Ring Research, University of Arizona

Gordon B. Bonan, NCAR

Graham Feingold, Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA

Warren M. Washington, NCAR

Joseph D. Huba, Naval Research Laboratory

Bin Wang, Department of Meteorology, University of Hawaii

Warren J. Wiscombe, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

William I. Rose, Department of Geological Engineering and Sciences, Michigan Technological University

Donald K. Perovich, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Army

Paul R. Krehbiel, Department of Physics and Department of Electrical Engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

Natalie M. Mahowald, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University

David H. Rind, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Barbara M. Hickey, School of Oceanography, University of Washington

Lai-Yung Leung, Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Andrew P. Roberts, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University

Peter S. Liss, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia

Tim Palmer, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, University of Oxford

James W. Hurrell, an associate director and senior scientist at NCAR, has been named the center’s new director. He assumed his new post in September. Hurrell succeeds Roger Wakimoto, who left NCAR earlier this year to lead the Directorate for Geosciences at NSF.

Hurrell, a climate scientist with expertise in computer modeling and large-scale atmospheric patterns, first came to NCAR as a visiting scientist in 1990. He is the former director of NCAR’s Climate and Global Dynamics Division, and he has served as chief scientist of the Community Earth System Model program, which is one of the world’s most advanced computer models of Earth’s climate. In 2011, Hurrell was named an NCAR associate director as well as director of the Earth System Laboratory, which focuses on weather, climate, and atmospheric chemistry research. Hurrell has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and has given nearly 150 professional invited and keynote talks.

An internationally recognized climate expert, Hurrell has played a leading role in national and international science organizations. He has been extensively involved in the World Climate Research Programme and the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme, as well as assessment activities of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. He has served on several National Research Council panels. Hurrell has also provided numerous briefings and testimonies to both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on climate change science.

Hurrell is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, AMS, and the Royal Meteorological Society. He is the recipient of AMS’s Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award and has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson-ISI. He has served on the AMS Council as well as numerous other national and international scientific committees. In 2011, he was honored for his contributions to climate science by giving the Fridtjof Nansen Memorial Lecture to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, where he was also awarded the Nansen Medal.

Hurrell holds a master’s and Ph.D. in atmospheric science from Purdue University.