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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - 72nd Annual Honor Award Recipients

NOAA Logo

Group Gold Medal – Leadership

Ronald Smilek – Gregory P. Johnson – Vanessa Griffin – Mark S. Paese – CAPT Todd A. Bridgeman – Jennifer Clapp – John Leslie

For outstanding leadership in transferring NOAA GOES-13 to the United States Air Force, addressing a critical coverage gap over the Indian Ocean.


Organizational Gold Medal – Personal and Professional Excellence

P3 Hurricane Hunter Aircrew

For courage, dedication, and heroism during the search and rescue efforts for the marine vessel Bourbon Rhode and crew on September 27 and 28, 2019.


Group Gold Medal – Personal and Professional Excellence

Troy Audyatis – Shawn Eusebio – Todd Nickerson – Michael Henry – Tom Gaffney – Chad Demarest – Sarah Heil – Joseph Heckwolf – Charles Green

For the successful criminal and civil investigations of U.S. v. Carlos Rafael, illegal activity of the New England groundfish fishery.


Group Gold Medal – Personal and Professional Excellence

Sean Hastings –Todd Jacobs – Michael Murray – Chris Mobley – Claire Fackler – Julie Bursek – LT Kristin Raja

For excellence under pressure providing emergency response during the dive vessel conception tragedy in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.


Group Gold Medal – Scientific/Engineering Achievement

H. James Silva – Joseph Philip Green – Robert Redmon – Banghua Yan – Changyong Cao – Xiangqian Wu – R. Renee Smith Dearring – Donna McNamara – Dejiang Han

For innovative engineering and science approach that avoided $28M in repair costs to deliver NOAA instruments to Metop-C to improve weather forecasts.


Group Gold Medal – Scientific/Engineering Achievement

Stephen A. Montzka – Robert W. Portman – Bradley D. Hall – James W. Elkins – John S. Daniel

For discovering the recent production and release of CFC-11, indicating a major violation of the Montreal Protocol.


Group Gold Medal – Scientific/Engineering Achievement

Frederick W. Goetz – Adam Luckenbach – William Fairgrieve – Ken Massee – Courtney Jensen – Matthew Cook – Jonathan Lee

For development of technology to overcome bottlenecks and enhance profitability of commercial aquaculture of sablefish (aka. black cod) in the USA.


Organizational Gold Medal – Scientific/Engineering Achievement

NWS Aviation and Space Weather Services Branch 

The Space Weather Prediction Center

For the planning, development, and implementation of a brand-new space weather forecast service to support international aviation requirements.


Group Gold Medal – Scientific/Engineering Achievement

Noah Lawrence-Slavas – Adrienne Sutton – Stacy Maenner Jones – Randy Bott – Christian Meinig

For the first autonomous circumnavigation of Antarctica, allowing three-season observation of carbon dioxide flux in the Southern Ocean.


Group Gold Medal – Scientific/Engineering Achievement

Alan Leonardi – Margot Bohan – Eric Kihn – Jennifer Jencks – Kelly Stroker – Robin Warnken – Andy Armstrong – Meredith Westington – RDML Shepard Smith – John McDonough

For Successful Orchestration of Seafloor Mapping & Data Science Initiatives Imperative to Fulfill U.S. Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) Project Goals.


Group Gold Medal – Scientific/Engineering Achievement

Vijay Tallapragada – Fanglin Yang – Rus Treadon – Jun Wang – Geoff Manikin – Steven Earle – Carissa Klemmer – Rusty Benson – Lucas Harris – Jeffrey Whitaker

For development and accelerated implementation of NOAA’s flagship Global Forecast System GFSv15.1, a foundation for FV3 based Unified Forecast System.


Organizational Gold Medal – Customer Service

Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center

Weather Service Office Vicksburg, Mississippi

For extraordinary hydrologic decision support services for the 2018-2019 lower Mississippi Valley flood event and Hurricane Barry.


Organizational Gold Medal – Customer Service

Missouri Basin River Forecast Center 

Weather Forecast Office Hastings, Nebraska

Weather Forecast Office Omaha, Nebraska

For lifesaving forecasts and warnings during Nebraska’s historic flooding, and seamless continuity of operations during an NWS office evacuation.


Individual Gold Medal – Heroism

ENS Andie Cuiffo

For outstanding readiness and prompt facilitation of lifesaving techniques on two victims in a life threatening automobile accident.


Group Silver Medal – Leadership

Barry Thom – Michael Tehan – Katherine Cheney – Patricia Dornbusch – Heidi Lovett

For leading the CBP Task Force to unprecedented consensus on goals for Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead.


Group Silver Medal – Personal and Professional Excellence

Michael T. Williams – Thomas T. Gelatt – Devin S. Johnson – Jonathan M. Kurland – Rolf R. Ream – Rodney G. Towell – Maura B. Sullivan – Molly E. Watson

For modernizing co-management of subsistence use of northern fur seals and increasing food security for Alaska Natives on the Pribilof Islands.


Group Silver Medal – Scientific/Engineering Achievement

Adam Smith – Jesse G. Enloe – Derek Arndt

For developing the U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disaster product, a baseline reference for quantifying extreme weather costs to the Nation.


Individual Silver Medal – Scientific/Engineering Achievement

Scott Rudlosky

For the development, validation, and implementation of the first ever GOES-R Lightning Mapper Products.


Individual Silver Medal – Scientific/Engineering Achievement

Jeffrey S. Whitaker

For creating a 200-year Historic Reanalysis dataset of global weather, extremes from only surface pressure and sea surface temperature observations.