We are honored to introduce Professor Pierre Gentine, who received the 2022 AGU James B. Macelwane Medal for his fundamental research on land-atmosphere interactions and pioneering contributions to integrating machine learning concepts into climate modeling. Professor Gentine’s group is known for groundbreaking advances in integrating machine learning methods with physical models/processes to advance our understanding of the Earth system. He introduced frameworks for using deep learning to improve cloud-resolving simulations for climate modeling. His group led the development of the Cloud Brain (CBRAIN), a novel deep learning framework for skillful prediction of convection in climate models. With these contributions, he transformed the dominating top-down thinking (and simulation strategy) by opening a unique avenue for a future class of convection parameterizations in climate models. Within a short period of time from these pioneering publications, many other artificial intelligence-based methods were developed by others. Arguably, Professor Gentine’s innovative work on this topic spurred a new wave of research in using deep learning for climate science. He has successfully established the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center (STC) Learning the Earth with Artificial Intelligence and Physics (LEAP) to further advance this field. While most scientists focus, at least in the early parts of their career, on one field of study, Professor Gentine has progressed on several different fronts. His group developed a new theory for surface layer turbulence, discovered the key role of cloud albedo feedback and of the morning fog layer in determining the diurnal course of surface heat fluxes in the tropics, and revealed the power of satellite observations to provide new insights into water stress on global plant physiological response. Further, Professor Gentine’s group has shed light on the magnitude of the effect of soil moisture variability on the long-term carbon sink and the mechanisms responsible for associated carbon losses. They showed that soil moisture variability and trends induce large carbon dioxide sources on the order of the land carbon sink itself. In summary, Professor Gentine is an exceptional scientist and a dedicated mentor who has achieved an international standing through groundbreaking and high-impact contributions. We are thrilled that he was selected as one of the recipients of the 2022 James B. Macelwane Medal. Congratulations, Pierre! — Amir AghaKouchak University of California, Irvine Irvine, California — Efi Foufoula-Georgiou University of California, Irvine Irvine, California

Jennifer Burney, Elliott Campbell, Pierre Gentine, and Jintai Lin will receive the 2017 Global Environmental Change Early Career Award at the 2017 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 11–15 December in New Orleans, La. The award recognizes an early-career scientist “for outstanding contributions in research, educational, or societal impacts in the area of global environmental change, especially through interdisciplinary approach.”  

Pierre Gentine is one of the most thoughtful and intellectually stimulating scientists to start a career in the Earth sciences. His training in applied mathematics and physics allows him to bring new perspectives to challenging theoretical and practical problems at the interface between hydrology, meteorology, and ecology that define the dynamics of the global hydrological cycle. It is remarkable that in a very short time he has been able to conjure up new insights on long-standing problems, such as the nature of vegetation adaptation that leads to the empirical observations that support the Budyko curve, and has also developed a formal theoretical framework for convection, linking cloud dynamics, evaporation, and other surface and boundary layer processes. Together these lines of inquiry, blending physics and appropriate statistical methods, address major sources of uncertainty in the future of Earth’s climate. Though young, he is a leader and a role model in this area, demonstrating the best of the scientific method: Take a complex problem, understand the key aspects of the observational evidence in a theoretical framework, and then develop an appropriate, simple, and elegant theoretical representation of the processes that provides insight into the phenomenon at a fundamental level. He is very worthy of recognition through the Global Environmental Change Award, the first of many that I am sure he will garner.

—Upmanu Lall, Columbia University, New York

Dear Manu, Thank you for the kind word. I am truly humbled and honored to receive such an award. I started my academic career as a hydrologist. I had the luck and fortune to be exposed to other fields during my academic journey. During my Ph.D., I was hosted by the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique. They introduced me to the magic and complexity of moist convection and clouds. It opened a Pandora’s box and an excitement that have never stopped since then. In parallel, I was puzzled by the role of vegetation in regulating the continental water cycle and decided to try and understand how vegetation was functioning. While learning (and trying to publish some papers!), I was lucky to meet some giants who would be willing to listen to young people: Dara, Manu, Alan Betts, and Joe Berry. I will always remember Alan taking the time to have lunch with me 1 year out of grad school after I had mentioned I had an idea for a new convective parameterization. The stories of Joe from the molecular scale to superparameterization in the Amazon evenings were simply an enchantment. An award is never a single-person effort, and I sincerely thank all the fantastic people with whom I have collaborated: Adam, Fabio, Kirsten, Ben, Bert, Sonia, Guido, Maria…and my wonderful postdocs and students. I would like to thank my wife and three children for their constant support. Their smiles always place things in perspective. Looking at my children motivates me to try and understand what our future climate will look like. Finally, I would like to dedicate this to the memory of my dad, who died during the 2013 AGU Fall Meeting. He was a doctor, a scientist, and a cheerful, honest, and humble individual. I hope I transmit some of his values to my group and colleagues. —Pierre Gentine, Columbia University, New York