UCAR Member Renewal

6. York University

York University has been a UCAR member since 1997. Research in atmospheric science is conducted in the Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering (ESSE), Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry (CAC), Centre for Research in Space Science (CRESS), and the Department of Chemistry, and Department of Physics and Astronomy. The core department is ESSE. Its name was changed recently from Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science, but atmospheric science remains the largest group in the department. There are seven faculty members in ESSE, with additional members involved in atmospheric science research from the other departments. There is an undergraduate and graduate program in atmospheric science, with 23 Ph.D. and 28 M.Sc. degrees conferred in the past seven years.

Research facilities include a weather station located on campus, instrumentation for boundary layer and mesoscale field studies with a wind profiler network, and computer facilities. Examples of recent research initiatives are involvement in the NASA/CSA (Canada Space Agency) Phoenix Mars Program, participation in the Canadian SciSat effort that has successfully launched a Canadian satellite to study stratospheric ozone depletion in the Arctic, a CFCAS-funded Multi-scale Air Quality Network that covers the global and regional scales, participation in a major Canadian balloon campaign to measure stratospheric nitrogen oxides, and contributions to the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Experiment (CASES). Research funding is at a high level, with substantial grants from NSERC (Natural Science and Engineering Research Council), CFCAS (Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Science), CSA and CFI (Canadian Foundation for Innovation).

Faculty members have been recognized with several awards recently: J. McConnell was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, P. Taylor was a co-winner of the 2003 R.J. Templin Award from the Canadian Wind Energy Association, G. Shepherd a recipient of the John H. Chapman Award of Excellence from the CSA. A recent faculty recruit was J. Whiteway, a lidar specialist who was awarded a Canada Research Chair.

The university has been active in UCAR activities: Faculty have served on the UCAR Membership Committee and have collaborated with NCAR scientists; a student has participated in the 2004 UCAR Undergraduate Leadership Workshop.

The UCAR Membership Committee concludes that the membership criteria are fulfilled, and recommends to the Members’ Representatives that the membership of York University be continued as provided by the bylaws.

This page updated 2004-09-28 15:06 -07 by Michelle Flores
Contact: Susan Warner (303) 497-1655; swarner@ucar.edu