Colorado State University Professor Awarded Prestigious American Geophysical Union Fellowship

Colorado State University atmospheric science Professor David Randall has been named a Fellow in the American Geophysical Union for 2002. The AGU presented Randall with the honor to recognize his pioneering work in understanding the Earth’s climate system, identifying important feedback processes and simulating climate with general circulation models.

The prestigious fellowship is awarded annually to scientists who have attained acknowledged eminence in one or more areas of geophysical sciences. Selection as a Fellow of AGU is an honor bestowed on no more than 0.1 percent of its total membership in any given year.

"I believe Dr. Randall’s contributions rank him as one of the world leaders in this highly visible research arena," said Steven Rutledge, professor and head of Colorado State’s Department of Atmospheric Science. "His work has been a significant element in shaping the future of climate modeling research, both in the United States and abroad."

Randall, a nationally renowned researcher in cloud-climate studies and climate dynamics, joined the faculty at Colorado State in 1988, previously holding positions at MIT and NASA. His research focuses on modeling studies of clouds and their role in the global climate system.

Randall’s current work emphasizes obtaining better physical understandings of how the climate system operates. Some of his ongoing projects include developing improved cloud parameterization methods, conducting numerical experiments to determine the role of clouds in maintaining the present climate and investigating the role of clouds in climate dynamics.

AGU’s activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of the geophysical sciences in four fundamental areas: atmospheric and ocean sciences, solid-Earth sciences, hydrologic sciences and space sciences. From its beginnings in 1919, AGU has evolved into an active community of more than 38,000 scientists from 117 countries and now stands as a leader in the geophysical sciences.

In February, Randall also was awarded the distinction of Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general science organization and publisher of the peer-reviewed journal Science.