Congratulations To NOAA™s 2005 Presidential Rank Award Winners

Each year the President recognizes a distinct group of career Senior Executives with the President's Rank Award for exceptional long-term accomplishments. High-performing senior career employees are strong scientific leaders who achieve results and consistently demonstrate strength, integrity, industry, and a relentless commitment to excellence in public service. This year NOAA has five Meritorious Presidential Rank Award Winners. Congratulations to each of you! Details of the positive change generated by our winners and photos of Commerce Secretary Gutierrez presenting awards to recipients follow.

Dr. James F. (Jeff) Kimpel Director, NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), NOAA Research Dr. James F. Kimpel is renown for his scientific vision, his leadership skills, and his talent in putting together coalitions of federal, academic, and private partners to address complex challenges in order to save lives, protect property, and reduce economic loss from severe weather events. At NSSL, Dr. Kimpel provides the scientific direction, creative work environment, and financial stability to improve science, technology, decision tools, and training materials aimed at advancing the goals of the National Weather Service. Beyond NOAA, he helps create and skillfully manages diverse partnership programs to improve information for decision makers in coping with hazards such as tornadoes, hail, winds, flash floods, ice storms, and heavy snowfalls. For leading research efforts through to completion in support of the NOAA mission, successfully transferring research into operations, and building multifaceted coalitions, Dr. Kimpel™s achievements rank in the sustained accomplishment category for the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award. Dr. Kimpel could not attend photo session.

Dr. Stephen J. Lord Director, NOAA Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), NOAA's National Weather Service Under the direction of Dr. Stephen Lord, the EMC has developed computer models for weather, climate and air quality prediction with breakthrough performance, thereby providing NOAA-model guidance of unprecedented accuracy and reliability to the Nation. Under his leadership, models providing operational hurricane track forecast guidance have accelerated improvement in the accuracy of model hurricane track forecasts over the past 5 years, allowing the NCEP Tropical Prediction Center to consistently exceed GPRA goals for hurricane landfall forecast error in the extraordinarily busy Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico region for 2004. In August 2004, a new Climate Forecast System (CFS), based on a global coupled ocean and atmosphere model, was implemented. For first time, this model approach was as accurate for El Niño forecasts as statistical models, previously considered the most accurate models. Also, in August 2004, under Dr. Lord™s direction, a new model was introduced for air quality forecasting in the Northeastern U. S., thereby providing new NWS and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) services for health and safety and paving the way for a national capability to predict air quality for the major urban areas throughout the United States. Each of these breakthrough achievements has been accomplished through Dr. Lord™s efforts to broaden EMC™s scientific partnerships with other agencies and his leadership toward the goal of producing the world™s best forecast models with the most resource-efficient strategy.

Britt M. Mayfield Director, NOAA Tropical Prediction Center/National Hurricane Center (TPC/NHC), National Centers for Environmental Prediction, NOAA National Weather Service Under Mr. Max Mayfield™s tenure as Director of TPC/NHC, official tropical cyclone track forecasts have been steadily improving. TPC/NHC established new Atlantic track forecast records at every forecast period from 12-120 hours in 2003; set a record for the best Atlantic intensity forecasts (on average) in 15 years at every period from 12-72 hours, except at 72 hours (second best); met its 2003 Atlantic 48-hour track forecast GPRA goal (goal=130 nmi, actual=107nmi); and based on preliminary statistics met its GPRA goal for each of the four strong U.S. landfalling hurricanes in 2004. Under Mr. Mayfield™s leadership, the TPC/NHC successfully extended operational tropical cyclone forecasts in 2003 from three days to five days, giving people more time to prepare. He created the Joint Hurricane Testbed to accelerate the transition of research results into improved operational products, and strengthened organizational commitment to the highly successful Hurricane Liaison Team. This is a partnership between FEMA and NWS, a model for partnerships within the government. It ensures that emergency management needs are met during hurricane landfalls. He led the development of a regional Hurricane Operational Plan approved by 24 World Meteorological Organization member countries, ensuring coordination and a consistent message within the region. Mr. Mayfield™s tireless outreach efforts have been a major contribution to ensuring the best possible results during hurricane events.

Dr. Venkatachala Ramaswamy Senior Scientist, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, NOAA Research Dust storms on Mars and how raindrops distort radio signals first intrigued Dr. V. Ramaswamy, who is internationally renowned for his expertise in the understanding and quantification of the factors that change global climate and his ability to clearly communicate his results to the public and policy makers. Over the years he has provided key information to the global debate on climate change. As a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001), he led a team of international experts evaluating the current scientific knowledge of the radiative forcing of climate that received widespread acclaim and distinction. His inferences on the climatic effects of greenhouse gases, aerosols, solar and volcanic forcings, clouds, and ozone depletion have significantly advanced NOAA™s quest for a robust knowledge base on the factors changing long- term regional and global climate and derived results of practical significance for the nation and the world.

Dr. Petrus P. Tans NOAA Climate Modeling and Diagnostics Laboratory, NOAA Research In 1990, Dr. Petrus Tans discovered that trees, plants and soils in the Northern Hemisphere provide a substantial portion (several billion tons of carbon annually) of the natural uptake of carbon dioxide emitted by humans during the burning of fossil fuels. This discovery indicates that unlike carbon dioxide ocean uptake, it may be possible to increase uptake on land, for example through the growth of trees, and through agricultural practices that increase the carbon content of soils. The discovery allows for more accurate climate projections and was the stimulus for the North American Carbon Program aimed at understanding the uptake of carbon dioxide in North America. Through funding by the President™s Climate Change Research Initiative, Dr. Tans has begun to build œCarbon America�, a network of small aircraft and tall communications tower platforms designed to understand regional carbon dioxide uptake across the U.S. This will provide science-based data for carbon management.

For more information please contact Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator.