NCAR Oceanographer Receives Macelwane Medal from American Geophysical Union

BOULDER -- Scott Doney, a chemical oceanographer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), will be awarded the James B. Macelwane Medal at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) this week in San Francisco, California. The medal recognizes significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by a young scientist of outstanding ability. NCAR's primary sponsor is the National Science Foundation.

Doney came to NCAR as a postdoctoral fellow in 1991, the year he completed a Ph.D. in chemical oceanography in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint Program. He holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego.

The award cites Doney's "many and varied" interests and talents and notes his work has been both prolific and insightful on topics that include

• Measuring and modeling transient trace chemicals

• Calculating the time scales of oceanic ventilation

• Quantifying the irreversible thermodynamic component of air-sea gas transfer

• Modeling coupled physical-biological dynamics of the oceans

Most recently Doney has been collaborating with Inez Fung (University of California, Berkeley) on a computer model of the global carbon cycle within NCAR's Climate System Model. The goal is to look at both natural variability and climate responses and feedbacks resulting from human activity over the next couple of hundred years. Doney is also developing a new model of the biochemistry of marine ecosystems and analyzing biological variability in the oceans at the regional scale.

"It's a great honor and rewarding to see my work being recognized," says Doney. "I realize, though, that no one works in a vacuum and that the award really reflects contributions of all of my colleagues."

Three previous Macelwane award winners have been associated with NCAR:

• David Hanson (1996), project leader, NCAR Atmospheric Chemistry Division

• Thomas Holzer (1978), solar physicist, NCAR High Altitude Observatory

• Ralph Cicerone (1979), former director of NCAR's Atmospheric Chemistry Division, now chancellor of the University of California, Irvine

NCAR is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of more than 60 universities offering Ph.D.s in atmospheric and related sciences.