Collage of the 6 new postdoctoral fellows

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Cooperative Program for Advancement in Earth System Science (CPAESS) is happy to announce that six early-career researchers have been selected to join the next cohort of Climate and Global Change (C&GC) Postdoctoral Fellows. These new postdoctoral fellows are commencing cutting-edge research projects that will contribute to innovative Earth system science at UCAR and across the broader research community. The 35th cohort of C&GC postdoctoral fellows was selected by CPAESS and an independent Scientific Steering Committee comprising cross-disciplinary university professors and researchers.

Over the next two years, the fellows will be hosted by mentoring scientists at universities nationwide to conduct projects focused on observing, understanding, modeling, and predicting Earth system variability and change.

This cohort of C&GC postdoctoral fellows is funded through generous gifts from several private foundations. CPAESS, with the help of Friends of the National Center (UCAR’s alumni, engagement, and fundraising program), will manage these foundation donations over the next two years.

“We are thrilled that we are able to continue to offer this opportunity to these six brilliant scientists,” said Hanne Mauriello, CPAESS Director. “This program has historically attracted some of the best and brightest minds in Earth system science, and we look forward to continuing to support this newest cohort and to the mark they will leave on Earth system science.”

The new class of fellows was chosen from 123 applications through a competitive review process. In all, approximately 270 scientists have come through the C&GC fellowship program over its 35-year life span. 

These researchers have gone on to make tremendous contributions to the field of Earth system science, and their achievements have benefited UCAR, federal agencies, universities, and the broader research community. 

We are honored to announce the newest cohort of this prestigious, forward-thinking program, which for 35 years has played a vital role in cultivating leaders in climate and global change science. This year's fellows are:

Austin Barnes

  • Proposal Topic: Environmental Epidemiology, Climate Impacts
  • PhD Institution: University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • Host: Dr. Charles Fletcher, Dr. Christopher Shuler, and Dr. Shellie Habel, University of Hawai’i, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology

Samuel Bartusek

  • Proposal Topic: Atmospheric Dynamics, Land-Atmosphere Interactions
  • PhD Institution: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
  • Host: Dr. Yi Zhang from New York University, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Center for Atmosphere and Ocean Science

Soong-Ki Kim

  • Proposal Topic: Climate Dynamics, Physical Oceanography
  • PhD Institution: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Univ. of California San Diego
  • Host: Dr. Alexey Fedorov from Yale, Department of Earth and Planetary Science

Glenn Liu

  • Proposal Topic: Climate Dynamics, Physical Oceanography
  • PhD Institution: University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Manoa, HI, USA
  • Host: Dr. Clara Deser (NCAR | CGD) and Dr. Malte Stuecker (NCAR | CGD; University of Hawai'i at Manoa)

PJ Tuckman

  • Proposal Topic: Climate Dynamics, Atmospheric Dynamics
  • PhD Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
  • Host: Dr. Da Yang from Stanford University

Dor Sandler

  • Proposal Topic: Environmental Epidemiology, Climate Impacts
  • PhD Institution: Dept. of Geosciences, Tel Aviv University
  • Host:  Prof. Jeffrey Shaman from Columbia University, Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health