Fiscal Year 2019 NCAR Metrics

The metrics featured below offer qualitative and quantitative measurements and assessments of the productivity, quality, and impacts that NCAR staff, programs and activities have on our research community, sponsors, and society in general for data reported in the Metrics Database, Workday and iVantage HRIS systems and OpenSky Database as of October 31, 2019 for fiscal year 2019 (October 1, 2018 - September 30, 2019).  Staff continue to update their entries and expand their contributions throughout the year so visit the Metrics Database for the most current data. (2019 METRICS AS OF OCTOBER 31, 2019). Date stamp 10/30/19.

LAB/OBSERVATORY/PROGRAM-LEVEL METRICS

NCAR-Hosted Community Events

In FY19, a total of 138 events were hosted: 31 workshops, 62 tutorials, 42 conferences, and 3 colloquia with an average audience of 34 colleagues per event and estimated total audience of 13,250. Event co-sponsor groups included Colorado State University, the National Science Foundation and the Clean-Air Society of Australia and New Zealand, to name a few.

Facility Tours

Each year, NCAR facilities host tours organized for a specific organization or group. This year, NCAR hosted a total of 114 tours, between the NCAR-Wyoming Supercenter, the NCAR Research Aviation Facility, the High Altitude Observatory, EOL laboratory and the Mesa Lab.

NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer

The NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer Center (NWSC) is based in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  The Center provides advanced computing services to scientists studying a broad range of disciplines, including weather, climate, oceanography, air pollution, space weather, computational science, energy production, and carbon sequestration. The Center is open to the public for self-guided tours, field trips for school groups, and non-school group special tours. In FY19, the Center received 922 walk-in public visitors, and averaged 83 visitors per month.

NWSC hosted 72 tours in FY19, for groups ranging in size from 1 to 400 people. Nineteen tours were for K-12 groups, including Afflerbach Elementary School (Colorado) and various local school visits. Seventeen groups took science- or technical-related tours, including a group from Microsoft . There were 21 college or university groups, ranging from the Smithsonian Institute to Western Nebraska Community College. There were seven tours by political/sponsor groups, including the British Government and the U.S. Senate Committee and three peer centers visited, ranging from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts to TGS. There were also 3 engineering and 2 green building and design tours.

The Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport hosted a total of 31 tours in FY 2019. Five tours were for college and university groups, including STEM undergraduates and the University of Colorado. Five tours were for political and sponsor groups, including a congressional deligation and the Colorado State representative. There were also three tours provided to K-12 groups, including one from the Broomfield Workforce Teen Program. This year there were fifteen science/technical tours provided to groups ranging from the Ball Corporation to Earth Works. There were also 3 engineering groups that toured the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.

The High Altitude Observatory

The High Altitude Observatory hosted a total of 6 tours in FY19. One tour was for the University of Rochester and another was for visiting scientists from NOAA.

In addition to the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer, the NCAR Research Aviation Facility and the High Altitude Observatory tours, there were also 2 tours of EOLs laboratory and 3 tours at the Mesa Lab. 

Individual Staff Metrics

Contributions to Individual Graduate Student Education

NCAR staff members serve as research advisors and thesis committee members for graduate students around the world.

In FY 2019, NCAR staff served as graduate advisors or committee members for 202 graduate students. Eighteen of those are working on their M.S. degree and 184 are working on their Ph.D. Seventy-three percent of students attend U.S. universities, whereas 27% study at schools in 24 different countries world-wide  including a PhD student from Pennsylvania State University who was advised by Guido Cervone, a PhD student from the Chinese Academy of Science advised by Hanli Liu, and a Master’s student from the University of Costa Rica, advised by Joanie Kleypas.

Editorships

NCAR staff members serve as publication editors. These positions recognize the appointee's leadership in the field and serve a critical role in developing a given field's future focus.

91 NCAR staff served in editorial roles for 105 different publications or journals. Falko Judt served as a Reviewer for the Monthly Weather Review while Federico Gasperini served as a Reviewer for the Journal of Geophysical Research. Publications included top-tier journals such as the Monthly Weather Review and the Journal of Climate.

External Awards

Every year a significant number of NCAR Staff are honored for their scientific excellence and community contributions to the Atmospheric and related sciences. 

Rich Rotunno (MMM) received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Meteorological Society. This award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the theory and/or application of knowledge about Severe Local Storms during their career.

In FY19 there were 4 NCAR staff awarded the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Fellows: Wen-Chau Lee (EOL), Tammy Weckwerth (EOL), Jenny Sun (RAL) and Michael Ek (RAL). Additionally, Bob Sharman and Peter Gent won the Outstanding Contribution to the Advance of Applied Meteorology and the Sverdrup Gold Medal award, respectively, both presented by AMS.  Astrid Maute received the AGU 2018 Editor's Citation for Excellence in Refereeing, Eric Gilleland received the Editor's Award from the Monthly Weather Review and Peter Gent was awarded a Fellow appointment from the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

K-12 Outreach

Staff across NCAR work directly with classes and groups of K-12 students to develop or deliver lectures, conduct tours, and lead or participate in field trips and other educational activities.

Forty-three NCAR staff worked with K-12 students from 58 schools or other school based organizations. Activities included a kindergarten clouds session at Alpine Elementary School in Longmont, Colorado, helping teachers, mentoring, and field trips reaching 27 different communities. Examples range from volunteering at the Wyoming State Science Fair in Laramie, Wyoming to conducting a presentation to 6-12th grade students at the Northern Lights Community School in Warba, Minnesota.

Additional highlights include: Mark Miesch (HAO) was on the Advisory Board, Mobile Earth and Space Observatory in middle schools across Colorado which serves approximately 300 students; Lorena Medina Luna was an educator at the Wow! Children's Museum Girls in Science event, sponsored in Lafayette, Colorado and Scot Colburn was a science fair judge at the Colorado Science and Engineering Fair in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Mentoring

NCAR staff participate in mentoring colleagues and students.

During this year, 104 staff members mentored mentees both inside and outside of NCAR. Stephen Yeager (CGD) was a mentor to a student from Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego; Heather Lazrus MMM) was a science mentor for a student from the University of Oklahoma; Melissa Bukovsky (CISL) met with students during the Undergraduate Leadership Workshop at various colleges while Alessandro Fanfarillo (RAL) was a science and software engineer mentor for a machine learning-based method for wind resource assessment at the University of Iowa.

NCAR staff members make important contributions through teaching appointments at institutions of higher education in different positions ranging from Graduate Faculty to Professor.

Teaching appointments at institutions of higher education currently number 47. Seventeen percent of these appointments occur in 6 international countries; 83% took place in 10 U.S. states. The longest term is 34 years, by Grant Branstator (CGD) who is an Adjunct Professor at Iowa State University. The class sizes range from 4 to 350 students.

External Committee Service

NCAR staff are called upon to participate in and often lead external scientific, technical, policy, and educational committees. These committees are instrumental to advancing and promoting the work of the scientific and technical community.

This year, 182 NCAR staff served in a multitude of roles on 512 external committees (an average of 2.8 committees per participating staff member) for national and international scientific, education, and governmental organizations, including entities such as the European Geosciences Union, the Boulder Public Library, and the University of Utah.

Staff Collaboration Visits to Universities

NCAR staff take leaves to visit other institutions for two weeks or more for intellectual growth, professional development, collaboration with research community peers, community support, teaching, or sabbatical. Examples of work include teaching courses or workshops, lecturing, giving tutorials, working with graduate students on dissertation-focused research, student mentoring, collaborative research, and participating in the host institution's outreach to community colleges, minority-serving institutions, and high schools.

This year, 6 NCAR staff members took leaves to 6 different institutions, ranging from the University of Hawai’i to Monash University.  Among the highlights: Moha Gharamti  (CISL) worked a on state-parameter estimation for biogeochemical models at the University of Leeds. The modeling framework is based on NCAR’s CESM and the goal is to provide global estimates of various biogeochemical states and parameters which can be useful for climate projections and reanaly and Angeline Pendergrass (CGD) was on a collaborative leave at ETH Zurich where she was collaborating on the hydrologic cycle and its changes with NCAR Affiliate Professor Reto Knutti. 

APPOINTMENT METRICS

Special Appointments

NCAR Affiliate Scientists

Select university and research-community scientists are invited to carry out long-term, highly interactive, collaborative work with UCAR scientists and are appointed as Affiliate Scientists with three-year terms (see list). This appointment is particularly suitable for parties who desire an extended, close-working relationship on scientific problems of mutual interest. Currently, 44 scientists hold appointments including Dr. Kevin Repasky of Montana State University. Dr. Repasky is collaborating with scientists in the Earth Observing Laboratory(EOL) on developing a deployable version of a low-cost water vapor differential absorption lidar (WV DIAL).

Emeritus/Emerita 

Scientific and Research Engineering staff who have made significant contributions to NCAR through long and distinguished service in senior positions in research may be granted emeritus or emerita status (see list). This designation confers a life-long honorary distinction. Approval of the President and the Board of Trustees is required. Currently the ranks of Emeritus/Emerita number 32. 

*deceased