Unidata offers computer equipment grants to support a variety of projects

The Unidata Program Center is pleased to announce the opening of the 2022 Unidata Community Equipment Awards solicitation. Created under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, Unidata equipment awards are intended to encourage new members from diverse disciplinary backgrounds in the geosciences to join the Unidata community, and to encourage existing members to continue their active participation, enhancing the community process. For 2023, a total of $100,000 is available for awards; proposals for amounts up to $20,000 will be considered.

Past recipients of Unidata equipment awards have used the grants to procure equipment for data sharing, to create interactive data visualization laboratories, and to encourage the use of Unidata software packages in research and education. The proposal process is designed to be as low-impact as possible, with just a few required elements. You can view previously accepted proposals, and take advantage of a short proposal template if you choose. Staff at the Unidata Program Center are happy to help you define the hardware requirements for your project or answer any other questions you may have while preparing a proposal.

Ryan Abernathey

Ryan Abernathey of Columbia University has been awarded the 2022 Russell L. DeSouza Award by the Unidata Users committee. The DeSouza Award honors “substantive and sustained contributions of energy and expertise to the geosciences community that reflect the ideals of the Unidata Program's mission” to better serve the geosciences.

In case you missed it — here's a recap of news from the Unidata Program Center for the month of November, 2022.

The UCAR COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate) Program's 2023 GNSS Remote Sensing Colloquium will be held in-person June 5-16, 2023 in Boulder, Colorado. Sponsored by NASA, NOAA, NSF, and NSPO, this colloquium aims to educate a new generation of scholars to advance the techniques and applications of GNSS remote sensing, and provide "hands-on" project learning experience in small groups.

In case you missed it — here's a recap of news from the Unidata Program Center for the month of October, 2022.

The Unidata Program Center is pleased to welcome new members to the program's governing committees. Committee members serve three-year terms, meeting twice each year to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the Unidata Program and advise staff on issues facing the university community. Appointments reflect the range of large and small colleges and universities with undergraduate and graduate emphases where Unidata systems are in use. Read on for brief introductions to the scientists joining Unidata's committees.

Stonie Cooper joined the Unidata Program Center staff on October 3rd, 2022, as a software engineer. Stonie comes from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), where he was a faculty applied meteorologist/climatologist, managing the Nebraska Mesonet.

Stonie earned a bachelor's degree in natural science education and meteorology at UNL before a brief stray into atmospheric chemistry as a PhD student at Georgia Tech. He returned to UNL's School of Natural Resources to finish his doctoral work, focusing on climate assessments and impacts. He's spent most of his career in the private sector, with experience in operational meteorology, severe weather forecasting, climatology, and climate adjacent industries. His technical expertise in satellite communications, IT security, data warehousing, and machine learning adaptations will all come into play at the Program Center.

The Unidata Users Committee invites you to join Unidata staff, community members, and guests for a community workshop to take place 5-8 June 2023 as a hybrid (in-person and/or virtual) event hosted in Boulder, Colorado. While the detailed agenda is still under construction, the overarching theme for the workshop is Storytelling with Earth System Science Data: Challenges and Opportunities for Effective, Ethical, and Reproducible Science.

In case you missed it — here's a recap of news from the Unidata Program Center for the month of September, 2022.

Mike Zuranski

Mike Zuranski joined Unidata on September 19, 2022 as a data engineer. He may already be familiar to many in the Unidata community; Mike comes to the team from the College of DuPage, where he has worked to support the IT needs of their meteorology program and helped to develop and maintain the very popular Nexlab website. He received his A.S. degree with a focus on Meteorology, and a certification in Weather Hazards and Preparedness from the College of DuPage as well.