[CCSM-participants] 2002 CCSM Distinguished Achievement Award Announcement

[Lydia Shiver]

Recipients of the 
2002 CCSM Distinguished Achievement Award

Cecilia M. Bitz, Polar Science Center, University of Washington
and
Elizabeth C. Hunke, Los Alamos National Laboratory


The Community Climate System Model (CCSM) Scientific Steering Committee
is happy to announce that the recipients of the 2002 CCSM Distinguished
Achievement Award are Cecilia M. Bitz and Elizabeth C. Hunke.

This award is in recognition of Cecilia's and Elizabeth's many
contributions to the CCSM development.  

Cecilia has over the past five years developed a state-of-the-art
physical-numerical sea ice model that represents the ice mass balance in
terms of a multi-category thickness distribution, and represents the
vertical transfer of heat in terms of a multi-level temperature profile
for each category of ice thickness.  Cecilia's model is the first to
combine these elements, which required development of new
parameterizations and the implementation and extensive testing of code
that conserves energy and mass to a high degree of accuracy.  She has
participated actively in the Polar Climate Working Group since its
inception, generously sharing her numerical models and results with
other members, and working tirelessly to elucidate the consequences of
the new model and to incorporate the model into the CCSM.  In 2000-2001 
Cecilia also made significant contributions to the diagnosis and
analysis of arctic circulation simulated by the CCSM Atmosphere Model.

Elizabeth Hunke helped to develop a new elastic-viscous-plastic (EVP)
model of sea-ice dynamics that incorporates an elliptical yield curve
representing both shear and normal stresses in the deforming ice.  This
EVP implementation offers the potential for significant improvements in
numerical efficiency when implemented on shared memory computer
systems.  Early in the development of CCSM, Elizabeth took on a
positive, proactive role in implementing this EVP model for CCSM, and in
working together with the Polar Climate Working Group to develop a
coordinated framework for the new sea ice model.  During the past three
years, Elizabeth has served as co-chair of the Polar Climate Working
Group and has made valuable contributions to the code, including
testing, debugging, and making the code consistent with F90 standards.

Thus, it is fitting to recognize Cecilia's and Elizabeth's contributions
as well as their continuing service to the CCSM project.

Congratulations to Cecilia and Elizabeth!