Dr. Elizabeth Barnes is an exceptionally gifted atmospheric dynamicist who is innovating the application of emerging tools in data science to uncover new insights into the physics of the climate system. In the short time since her Ph.D., Dr. Barnes has already made fundamental contributions in many areas, including dynamical understanding of the extratropical atmospheric circulation, its variability and its response to anthropogenic and natural forcings; leveraging advanced methods in artificial intelligence to improve global subseasonal weather prediction originating from tropical disturbances; and pioneering the usage of such methods to identify causal physical linkages underlying observed climate variability and to reveal the emerging influence of anthropogenic climate change. Dr. Barnes is a prolific scholar and collaborator, with approximately 100 publications to date. Her papers are exemplary not only for their influential scientific content but also for their clarity of purpose and prose. Dr. Barnes has established herself as a dedicated and outstanding mentor and educator in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, where she leads a vigorous and well-funded research group. In addition to her teaching duties, Dr. Barnes provides impactful leadership to the national and international climate and data science communities. Dr. Barnes’ scholarly achievements and promise have been recognized with many prestigious awards, including the AGU James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award, the AGU Turco Lectureship, the American Meteorological Society’s Meisinger Award, a NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellowship and a National Science Foundation CAREER award. Thank you, Libby, for boldly innovating crosscutting connections between climate and data science in service of advancing physical understanding; your vision and commitment are a legacy in the making. 

— Clara Deser National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder, Colorado

 — Lorenzo Polvani Columbia University New York, New York

 — Michael Pritchard University of California, Irvine Irvine, California

 — David Thompson Colorado State University

Response

This award means many things to me. At the highest level, although this award is given to my name, to me this award emphasizes all of the wonderful people I have gotten to work with over the past few years. Without you all there would be no universe in which I would be up for such an award. This is especially true of the students, postdocs and researchers I get to work with on a daily basis here at Colorado State University and beyond. Thank you. Second, my ultimate science goal has always been to try and change how people think, rather than a goal of an explicit number or solution. This award suggests we may be succeeding in doing just that. And finally, this award means that the community sees value in the work that we are doing and wishes to see it continue. This is a very good thing because I am having far too much fun!

— Elizabeth A. Barnes
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado