Professor of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

AGU embraces the global community and welcomes leaders representing various identities, voices, and perspectives. List any identities, voices, and perspectives you would bring, including but not limited to nationality, regional representations, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and anything else you feel comfortable sharing.

I have studied the climatic effects of biomass burning, cirrus anvils, cryospheric melt, and windblown dust. I write, maintain, and support geoscientific software. I have responded to thousands of help requests on public sites like SourceForge and StackOverflow where many questions come from researchers with minimal resources. Geosciences are a global endeavor. AGU should continue and expand initiatives for capacity building in developing countries, island states, and the global south. I also research, implement, and advocate shifting to Green Computing methods, such as lossy compression to reduce data storage, power consumption, and greenhouse emissions. As AGU members we are exemplars and must minimize our private and professional carbon footprints.

Transparency is a fundamental value to me as a researcher, reviewer, and open-source enthusiast. I am a USA citizen who has lived and studied geosciences in Massachusetts, Colorado, California, and France. My racial/ethnic background is white/northern European. As an outrigger team paddler, I embrace the Hawaiian spirit of Ohana and kindness on and off the water. I led our department's diversity efforts from 2012–2016 as our graduate program mentor for diversity, equity, and inclusion. I frequently collaborate with and/or advise researchers and students from underrepresented groups.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

Lead Convener of informatics and/or climate sessions at AGU, International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS), European Geosciences Union (EGU), and Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP). AGU/EGU/ESIP Data Help Desk volunteer at AGU, EGU 2017-present. AGU Leptoukh Lecture Award Committee 2022-present. AGU Eos Science Advisor for Atmospheric Sciences, 2007-2008. NASA Dataset Interoperability Working Group, founding chair and member, 2013-2024. Climate & Forecast (CF) Convention co-author, netCDF-CF Workshop co-organizer (2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023). University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) member representative (2002-present) and Governance Task Group, 2022-2024.

This role aims to catalyze community and build AGU as envisioned by the strategic plan. This leadership position is a dual role - helping to advance AGU’s strategic plan as a member of Council and leading your section. How would you support the Board, staff and other sections to achieve AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals? How will you engage with members of your section to execute AGU’s strategic plan?

Informatics is a trans-disciplinary section, and, as such, is well poised to help AGU advance and embody its strategic plan. The plan commits AGU to "lead in open science and open data". Informatics members have already helped AGU adopt and implement publication policies that enhance research reproducibility and extension, in part by making primary and processed data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). The ESS Open Archive (ESSOAr) is a wonderful example. Informatics will continue to lead in informing and advising AGU data policies on emerging best practices for FAIR principles.

AGU also commits to "integrate new and emerging technologies into the practice and presentation of science". Informatics includes leading practitioners of Green Computing that AGU could consider embracing. These include reduced carbon intensity for computations (e.g., via reduced precision computing), data storage (e.g., via lossy compression), and data transport (e.g., via cloud storage and server-side analysis). Encouraging more use and publication of portable workflow notebooks (e.g., Jupyter) in AGU meetings and journals accelerates science education and democratization. Informatics is the natural venue for spearheading, showcasing, and intercomparing the efficacy of technology trends among the domain sciences that AGU comprises. To promote technology infusion throughout AGU, certain tools-oriented Informatics sessions should be designated (like all Education sessions) as exceptions to AGU's 1-abstract rule at meetings. This would promote interest among (especially younger) AGU members in contributing to Informatics sessions without sacrificing their opportunity to also present in other sections.

Section affiliations:

Atmospheric Sciences; Cryosphere Sciences; Global Environmental Change; Informatics