EGS Honors Geophysicists

Abstract

At its 26th general assembly in Nice, France, last March, the European Geophysical Society bestowed fellowship on one scientist and presented awards and medals to 10 others. Roger-Maurice Bonnet was named a fellow of the EGS for “his authoritative and wide-ranging support of the space sciences, putting Europe at the forefront of Solar System exploration,” according to the society’s citation. He is director of research at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a professor of physical sciences and of astrophysics and geophysics at Liège University in Belgium. Atsuhiro Nishida, scientific supervisor with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, based in Tokyo, received the Hannes Alfvén Medal for “his outstanding contributions to the study of plasma processes in the Earth’s magnetosphere and as an international space science coordinator.”EGS presented the Badge Award to three winners. Leon Knopoff, a professor of physics and geophysics at UCLA, was recognized for “his outstanding services as editor and supporter of [EGS’s] journal Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics. ” EGS also acknowledged Peter L. Read, a reader in physics at the University of Oxford, for “his generous services as chairperson of the interdisciplinary working group of nonlinear processes in geophysics.” Susanna Zerbini was honored for “her exceptional services as president of the geodesy section and her eminent contribution in promoting geodesy within the society.” She is an associate professor of geodesy at the University of Bologna in Italy.EGS gave the Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal to Fedor Mesinger, praising him “as a leading expert in the field of numerical modeling of the atmosphere” and acknowledging “his contributions to numerical weather prediction.” Mesinger is a scientific visitor with the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s environmental modeling center in Camp Springs, Maryland, and an adjunct staff member of the physics of weather and climate group at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy.The John Dalton Medal went to Keith John Beven, a professor of hydrology and fluid dynamics at Lancaster University in the UK, for “his outstanding contributions to the understanding of hydrological processes and hydrological modeling.” Dan Rosbjerg was honored with the Henry Darcy Medal for “his outstanding contributions to the analysis of extreme hydrological processes and their engineering implications.” He is director of the groundwater research center at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby.The Milutin Milankovic Medal went to John E. Kutzbach for “his pioneering and outstanding contributions toward the understanding of the response of the climate system to astronomical forcing using three-dimensional ocean–atmosphere models.” Kutzbach is director of the center for climatic research within the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also is a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the university. Jürgen Willebrand received the Fridtjof Nansen Medal for “his pioneering work in the understanding of the dynamics of the circulation of the oceans.” Willebrand is director of the Institute for Marine Research and a professor of oceanography at the University of Kiel in Germany.The Lewis Fry Richardson Medal was awarded to Julian C. R. Hunt in recognition of “his fundamental contributions to the understanding of turbulent and stratified flows and dispersion modeling and their applications in environmental fluid dynamics.” He is a professor of climate modeling at University College London.© 2001 American Institute of Physics.