Sarah Kang is an outstanding climate dynamist who has made fundamental contributions to predictive understanding of extratropical influences on tropical rainfall distribution. The theoretical framework she pioneered is now widely adopted for a range of problems from the northward displaced tropical rainband to climate response to anthropogenic radiative forcing. Her theoretical interpretations combined with elegant numerical simulations are distinctive. Her work on cross-equatorial energy transport proved reliable and useful in guiding the development of full-physics global climate models (GCMs). Sarah has shown an ability to embed her intellectual leadership in organizational initiatives that raise the overall level of our science. This is evident through her organization of the Extratropical-Tropical Model Intercomparison Project (ETINMIP), which has inspired renewed interest in ocean overturning circulation in the context of cross-equatorial energy transport. Her research has evolved from the zonally uniform aqua-planet to realistic settings to tackle problems of great importance and relevance. Her recent work relates, in a novel way, low-cloud feedback to the long-standing biases of coupled GCMs in simulating cross-equatorial climatic asymmetry. Sarah has revealed fundamental insights into the physical mechanisms of how the coupled ocean-atmosphere system responds to radiative perturbations. These insights have clarified the processes underlying the overall response of the atmosphere and oceans to anthropogenic drivers of climate change, especially that due to aerosol emissions. Such fundamental understanding is extremely important for assessing climate model projections, and for attributing the observational record of climate trends. Sarah’s work in this area is foundational for its depth of insight and rigor of approach. Her pioneering work that changed our view of tropical-extratropical climate interactions, as well as her community leadership, makes her highly deserving of the recognition of an AGU Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award. —Shang-Ping Xie, University of California, San Diego

I am deeply honored and humbled to be the recipient of the Ascent Award. My gratitude goes to the nominators and selection committee for their time and effort in making this award possible. My accomplishments were only possible because I have been surrounded by great mentors. I specifically thank my Ph.D. adviser, Isaac Held (Princeton University), for guiding me to develop the energetics framework. I feel privileged and proud to be a member of the Held family. During my Ph.D. at Princeton, I had an opportunity to interact with Shang-Ping Xie (University of California, San Diego), who was visiting the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) for his sabbatical. I had not realized then that we would be working together on so many exciting projects! I truly value and enjoy our collaboration and feel fortunate to have you as my mentor. I am also grateful to my great female role model, Clara Deser (National Center for Atmospheric Research), through whom I gained courage to pursue my career while raising two children. I would also like to thank Bjorn Stevens (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology), whom I admire deeply, for unwavering support of my career. I would like to share this recognition with my brilliant graduate students who have worked with me over the past 10 years. They have contributed significantly to all the accomplishments mentioned in the citation. I am truly blessed to have worked with responsible, enthusiastic, and sincere young fellows. Most of all, I thank my husband, Hyun, and our two children, Jeen and Hannah, for being supportive of my career. I would not have come this far without their love and support. I dedicate this award to my father, In-Sik Kang (Seoul National University), for he has been the greatest inspiration for me. He has shown me how enjoyable and rewarding a life can be as an atmospheric scientist. Last, I thank my mother, Jeounghee, for your unconditional love. —Sarah Kang, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea