-more-


1994-6								March 9, 
1994

Contact:	Joan Vandiver Frisch
		Manager, NCAR Media Relations
		Boulder, CO (303) 497-8607
		E-mail:  jfrisch@ncar.ucar.edu

NCAR Director Elected to National Academy of Engineering 
	BOULDER - Robert Serafin, director of the National Center for 
Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, was recently 
elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).  One 
of the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer, academy 
membership honors those who have made "important contributions 
to engineering theory and practice" and demonstrated "unusual 
accomplishment in the pioneering of new and developing fields of 
technology."
	Serafin's nomination describes his profound influence on the 
science and practice of meteorology through his personal contributions 
to advanced instrumentation, particularly radar.  It recognizes his 
guiding role in the development of modern tools for observation, data 
processing, and display and commends his leadership in national and 
international bodies that have set the course for critical research and 
operations worldwide.
	Serafin earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from 
the University of Notre Dame, a master's degree from Northwestern 
University, and a Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology.  He 
joined NCAR in 1973.  He has served on research committees of the 
NAE, National Academy of Sciences, government agencies, 
universities, and research laboratories.  He established the Journal of 
Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology through the American 
Meteorological Society and served as its editor, in addition to serving 
on several other professional editorial boards.  He is a Fellow of the 
American Meteorological Society, senior member of the Institute of 
Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and member of Sigma Xi Scientific 
Research Society of North America.  Serafin will be inducted into the 
academy at the next annual NAE meeting in Washington, D.C., on 
October 5.
	NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and 
managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a 
consortium of 61 universities offering Ph.D.s in the atmospheric or 
related sciences.
The End

Writer:  Anatta, NCAR Media Relations