ACOM’s Ralph Cicerone Fellowship in Earth System Science

ACOM launched the Ralph Cicerone Fellowship in Earth System Science in 2019 in honor of Ralph Cicerone. Dr. Cicerone was highly respected for both his research on atmospheric chemistry and for his influential leadership on related policy issues. In the 1980s, Dr. Cicerone served as Director of NCAR’s Atmospheric Quality Division (now ACOM). This fellowship is intended for graduate students who identify as or working with an underrepresented population to visit ACOM and spend time at NCAR working on a thesis or final-project equivalent, with guidance from ACOM scientists and engineers. 

The first recipient, Claudia Bernier, a highly talented and engaged PhD student at the University of Houston, spent time at ACOM in summer 2019 to learn WRF-Chem and to use the model to study surface ozone in Houston and its relation to sea-breeze, halogen chemistry, local emissions and other drivers. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions on travel and visitors, a second in-person visit in 2020 could not take place. 

A new call for proposals was issued in early 2020 and amongst a pool of highly excellent candidates, the fellowship was awarded to Behrooz Roozitalab. Behrooz is an outstanding PhD student at the University of Iowa with Prof. Gregory Carmichael as his graduate advisor. Behrooz’s research focus is on air quality modeling, and during this fellowship he will collaborate with ACOM scientists on using MUSICA with a refined domain over India to explore the impacts of long-range transport of dust and fires. This makes Behrooz not only ACOM’s second Ralph Cicerone Fellow, but one of the very first users and contributors of MUSICA.

Figure 1. Excerpt from 1980 NCAR Staff Notes on the announcement of Ralph Cicerone to director of NCAR’s Atmospheric Quality Division (now ACOM).