Abernathey and Benitez-Nelson receive The Oceanography Society awards
Congratulations to Ryan Abernathey PhD ’12 and Claudia Benitez-Nelson PhD ’99 for receiving awards from The Oceanography Society. They were among seven 2020-2021 honors recipients.
Read this at The Oceanography Society
2021 TOS EARLY CAREER AWARD RECIPIENT:
Ryan Abernathey
For fundamental contributions on the role of turbulence in the ocean general circulation, and for providing our community with tools that accelerate the pace of scientific discovery
The Oceanography Society (TOS) congratulates Dr. Ryan Abernathey of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory for being selected as a recipient of the Early Career Award. The citation on Dr. Abernathy’s certificate recognizes him for fundamental contributions on the role of turbulence in the ocean general circulation, and for providing our community with tools that accelerate the pace of scientific discovery.
The Selection Committee noted that Dr. Abernathey has advanced understanding of the representation of ocean mixing in ocean and climate models, addressing a key source of uncertainty in climate change projections. The practical tools he is developing and providing to the community are facilitating the transformation of the field to “big data” science, utilizing cloud-based computing platforms to make large datasets and data analysis available to all, mostly independent of their local computing resources – i.e., he is democratizing big-data ocean science. The tools he is developing are already finding wide use in pedagogy to change the way ocean science is taught and learned.
Dr. Abernathey received his B.A. in physics from Middlebury College in 2004, then a Ph.D. in climate physics and chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.
2021 TOS MENTORING AWARD RECIPIENT:
Claudia Benitez-Nelson
For her tireless and remarkably successful efforts to engage, mentor, and imbue underrepresented students with her passion for science while also making outstanding contributions to research
The Oceanography Society (TOS) congratulates Dr. Claudia Benitez-Nelson for being selected as the inaugural recipient of The Oceanography Society’s Mentoring Award. The citation on Dr. Benitez-Nelson’s certificate recognizes her for her tireless and remarkably successful efforts to engage, mentor, and imbue underrepresented students with her passion for science while also making outstanding contributions to research.
The Selection Committee noted that her extraordinary mentoring efforts are both deep and broad, spanning undergraduate and graduate education, development of national (US) and international education programs, increasing opportunities for minority participation in science, and exceptional personal advising of a broad array of students.
Dr. Benitez-Nelson received B.S. degrees in physical chemistry and chemical oceanography in 1992 from the University of Washington. In 1999 she earned a Ph.D. in Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. She is currently an Associate Dean at the University of South Carolina where she handles Courses and Curriculum matters and oversees five departments (Biological Sciences, Mathematics, School of the Earth, Ocean & Environment, Psychology, and Statistics).
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