Education and Outreach Activities

Seminar Series

The ASP continued its series of seminar presentations. They are intended to promote greater understanding of the range of scientific activities underway at NCAR and the scientific community and to provide postdocs with an opportunity to schedule and arrange logistics for visiting scientists. During FY-04 ASP hosted eight seminars from NCAR scientists and one from Colorado State University.

The Geophysical Turbulence Program also had a full seminar series. Seminar lecturers are invited to stay around NCAR for a day or two to collaborate with NCAR turbulence researchers after their seminar. During FY-04 GTP hosted three seminars by NCAR scientists and 16 from outside institutions.

Thompson Lectures

In 1998 ASP established the "Thompson Lecture Series," named in honor of Phil Thompson who founded the Advanced Study Program and was NCAR's first associate director. Under this program, prominent scientists are brought to NCAR for short visits that promote interaction between them and the postdoctoral fellows and other junior scientists at NCAR. In addition to presenting formal lectures, the Thompson Lecturers listen to briefings on the research being conducted by ASP Fellows and comment and provide advice on those research projects. They also meet with groups of scientists to discuss some more general topics, provide career advice, and offer their perspectives on scientific trends and priorities. In FY-04, three Thompson Lecturers were brought to NCAR: Daniel Jacob (Harvard University), Dana Longcope (Montana State University) and David Battisti (University of Washington).


Daniel Jacob and Postdocs	Dana Longcope and Postdocs	David Battisti and Postdocs

Other Educational Activities

A few ASP Postdoctoral Fellows served as SOARS mentors during the summer months. SOARS is hosted through the Human Resources department of UCAR.

Postdoctoral fellows contributed expertise to many committees and seminar presentations at NCAR. Carrie Morrill presented a seminar at the NCAR Teacher’s Workshop and Joshua Hacker participated in a University of Colorado CIRES outreach program for curriculum development and teacher training in atmospheric sciences/meteorology in the St. Vrain Valley school district. Morrill was also a committee member of the UCAR DLESE Climate Change Collection for K-16 teachers and a contributor to the NOAA website on Abrupt Climate Change.

Postdoctoral fellows Christine Johnson and Jadwiga Beres organized a Girl Scouts’ Day at NCAR in October with the assistance of Teresa Eastburn (UCAR Education and Outreach) and Linda Fuller (Mile High Girls Scouts Council). The 40 junior girl scouts visited NCAR for a day and met with female scientists to learn more about weather and climate while fulfilling the requirements for the science discovery badge. This activity was well received and documented as a template for future visits.

The Early Career Scientists Assembly (ECSA), through support of ASP, sponsored scientific travel for several NCAR early career scientists. During FY-04 the ECSA hosted a visit from Wallace Broecker (Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University) for the annual Scientific Leaders discussion and seminar presentations. Continued this year was the second annual Junior Faculty Forum for Future Scientific Directions in June 2004. The three-day forum consisted of 40 participants from 19 universities and institutions of the U.S., Switzerland, Canada and the United Kingdom and discussed the sun-climate connection and the role of coastal zones in global biogeochemistry.