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Roy Spencer's book climbs into top ten best sellers
UAHuntsville atmospheric science program cracks national scholarly 'Top Ten' ranking
Christy named UAH distinguished professor
New concerns about climate model reliability
Long is 1st College of Science von Braun scholar
Open Biosystems donates to UAH
Five from college named Space Grant scholars
Franz honored for physics education work
Christy speaks before Senate
Dr. Aldo Forte, 1921 - 2007
Roy Spencer's book climbs into top ten best sellers
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UAHuntsville atmospheric science program cracks national scholarly 'Top Ten' ranking
The Atmospheric Science Department at The University of Alabama in Huntsville has been ranked among the Top Ten in the country based on scholarly productivity, the first time it has received this honor.
"The success of the program can be attributed to a strong faculty, people who are both active in their research programs and who have very good ideas," said Dr. Ron Welch, the department chair. "We are also blessed with active collaborative partnerships with NASA, the University Space Research Association and the National Weather Service.
"The benefits of these partnerships include the approximately 40 outside scientists who serve as affiliated or adjunct faculty. This dynamic research environment helps us attract excellent students from across the U.S."
The department ranked tenth overall in the 2007 list of the top atmospheric science and meteorology programs compiled by the "Chronicle of Higher Education." The Chronicle ranks the research "productivity" of universities and academic departments based on several criterion, including the percentage of faculty publishing peer-reviewed research, how often those publications are cited by other scientists, and the number and size of research grants received.
Among the top ten departments UAHuntsville's Atmospheric Science Department ranked third in the average size of research grants awarded, fourth in the total value of new grants per faculty member, and fifth in the number of journal publications per faculty member.
Other universities with ranked departments included MIT, Colorado State, the University of Washington, the University of Maryland, Rutgers and Cornell.
UAHuntsville's Ph.D. program in atmospheric science officially started in 1990 and added an M.S. program in 1993. It was recently announced that UAHuntsville will add a B.S. program in Earth system science beginning next fall.
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Christy named UAH distinguished professor
One of the world's leading authorities on global climate change, Dr. John R. Christy, has been named a distinguished professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Christy is only the seventh UAHuntsville faculty member to receive this honor, which is based on accomplishments in teaching, research and professional service.
"It's been a busy month," said Christy, who four weeks earlier was named associate vice president for research. "I am touched and honored by this, first because being named a distinguished professor starts with a nomination by your peers and second because of the high regard I have for the first six professors who received this award.
"Receiving this honor also reminds me of the debt of gratitude I owe to the many UAH colleagues who have supported our research through the years, as we tried to answer important questions about our climate."
Christy has been at UAHuntsville for 21 years, joining the university's atmospheric science faculty as a research associate and instructor in 1987.
He is director of UAHuntsville's Earth System Science Center -- one of the university's largest and most successful research centers -- and is also Alabama's state climatologist.
He is best known for his work in global climate monitoring. Christy and UAHuntsville Principal Research Scientist Roy Spencer use air temperature data collected by sensors on NOAA and NASA satellites to compile the most comprehensive dataset on global temperatures from late 1979 to the present.
Their findings became controversial when the first two decades of data showed no evidence of the long-term global warming trend predicted by most global climate models. The most recent data shows long-term warming at the rate of about 1.4 C (about 2.25 degrees Fahrenheit) per century.
Christy has testified before several congressional committees on climate change issues. He was a contributor, editor and lead author of reports on global warming published by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He also serves on committees of the National Research Council.
A fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), Christy has received numerous awards and prizes, including an AMS special award, the NASA Technical Achievement Award, the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, the UAH Foundation research and creative achievement award and a distinguished alumnus award from California State University, Fresno.
Christy has been the lead investigator on research grants and contracts worth more than eight million dollars; his research has been supported by NOAA, NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the state of Alabama.
Christy received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in atmospheric sciences from the University of Illinois. Prior to this career path he graduated from the California State University in Fresno, then taught physics and chemistry for two years as a missionary teacher in Nyeri, Kenya.
After earning a Master of Divinity degree from Golden Gate Baptist Seminary he served four years as a bivocational mission pastor in Vermillion, South Dakota, where he also taught college math.
Christy is married to the former Babs Joslin, a fellow missionary he met in Kenya. They have two children and two grandchildren.
Christy's favorite hobby is panning for gold, a skill he learned as a teenager in California. He is also an avid runner, competing in races from two miles to extra-marathon length.
Earlier UAHuntsville distinguished professors were S.T. Wu, Carroll Johnson and T.J. Chung from engineering, Richard McNider from science, Jim Simpson from business and Philip Boucher from liberal arts.
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New concerns about climate model reliability
A new study comparing the composite output of 22 leading global climate models with actual climate data finds that the models do an unsatisfactory job of mimicking climate change in key portions of the atmosphere.
This research, published on line in December in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology, raises new concerns about the reliability of models used to forecast global warming.
Scientists from the University of Rochester, UAHuntsville and the University of Virginia compared the climate change "forecasts" from the 22 most widely-cited global circulation models with tropical temperature data collected by surface, satellite and balloon sensors.
The models predicted that the lower atmosphere should warm significantly more than it actually did.
"Models are very consistent in forecasting a significant difference between climate trends at the surface and in the troposphere, the layer of atmosphere between the surface and the stratosphere," said Dr. John Christy, director of UAH's Earth System Science Center. "The models forecast that the troposphere should be warming more than the surface and that this trend should be especially pronounced in the tropics.
"When we look at actual climate data, however, we do not see accelerated warming in the tropical troposphere. Instead, the lower and middle atmosphere are warming the same or less than the surface. For those layers of the atmosphere, the warming trend we see in the tropics is typically less than half of what the models forecast."
This complete story is available on line at: http://uahnews.uah.edu
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Long is 1st College of Science von Braun scholar
 Stephanie Long of Madison, a junior majoring in astrophysics, has made UAH history as the first student from UA Huntsville’s College of Science to receive the Dr. Wernher von Braun Scholarship, awarded by the National Space Club.
"I’m very excited about being here, receiving the scholarship and having the chance to represent UAH in this way," said Long, who is getting a head start on a career in research as an undergraduate research assistant for the Atmospheric Science Department.
"I do data analysis and instrument maintenance for the DEPSCOR Radiometer project," said Long, who also serves as ozone station manager for Dr. Michael Newchurch, a professor in the Earth Systems Science Center. In that role she flies ozone sensors beneath helium weather balloons.
Each year the scholarship is awarded to a UAH student at the junior or senior level, "majoring in a space-related field or one who plans to pursue a career in a space-related field and has proven academic merit."
The scholarship was established in 1988 to recognize the efforts of Dr. Wernher von Braun and the National Space Club in the evolution of the space industry. The scholarship awards $3,000 and covers tuition, textbooks and associated expenses.
This complete story is available on-line at: uahnews.uah.edu.
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Open Biosystems donates to UAH
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Five from college named Space Grant scholars
Five students from UAH's College of Science were honored in November after being named NASA Space Grant scholars and fellows for the 2007-2008 academic year.
 More than $300,000 in undergraduate scholarships and graduate research fellowships was awarded to 39 students this year through the Alabama Space Grant Consortium and its member universities.
Undergraduate scholarship winners from UAH's College of Science were:
- Senior physics major John. I. Bailey from Mobile. He is a student research assistant in the Physics Department and also works with UAH's Laser Propulsion Group.
- Senior math and physics major J. Michael Burgess from Huntsville. He has been a research assistant at Marshall Space Flight Center for two years, working with Dr. Brian Ramsey on instrument development.
- Senior biology major Sophia Hightower from Valley Springs, CA. She is an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Roy Magnuson's lab.
- Junior biology major Ijeoma Okeke from Selma. She worked as a lab assistant from Dr. Amy Bishop.
Matthew Orr received a renewal of his Space Grant graduate fellowship. A native of Amherst, NH, Orr earned his B.S. in physics and math from the University of New Hampshire. A Ph.D. student in physics, he is doing research in high energy astrophysics with Dr. Richard Miller.
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Franz honored for physics education work
Dr. Judy Franz, UA Huntsville professor of physics and executive officer of the American Physical Society (APS), will receive the Melba Newell Phillips Medal from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) in recognition of Franz’s creative leadership and dedicated service to science education.
It will be presented at the AAPT winter meeting in Baltimore.
A condensed matter physicist, Franz served as AAPT president in 1990. She has helped forge a close relationship between APS and AAPT. She was on the faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington, and the University of West Virginia before she joined the physics faculty at UAH in 1991.
She is secretary general of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, a member of the governing board and executive committee of the American Institute of Physics, and a representative to the U.S. National Committee to UNESCO. She has served on the AAAS Council, as well as advisory committees for the Department of Energy, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research and NSF.
Franz received her B.A. degree in physics from Cornell University and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is a fellow of APS, AAAS and the American Association for Women in Science.
"I was amazed and delighted to learn that I would receive the Melba Phillips Award," Franz said. "I was inspired to major in physics by my introductory physics course at Cornell University taught by then-AAPT-President-to-be Don Holcomb. Since then I have worked to interest and excite young people about physics. I am grateful to the AAPT for its deep and continuing commitment to promoting excellence in the teaching of our fascinating discipline.”
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Christy speaks before Senate
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Dr. Aldo Forte, 1921 - 2007
Dr. Aldo Forte, a professor of mathematics at UAHuntsville for 25 years who continued to teach as professor emeritus for more than a dozen years after his retirement, died Nov. 20. He was 86.
Forte joined the UAH faculty in 1966, only four years after he and his family fled from their native Cuba. An associate professor of mathematics at the University of Havana, he and his family escaped despite attempts by the Communists to keep scientists from leaving the country; he used a homemade violin to convince Cuban authorities he was a musician.
He was, in fact, an accomplished amateur musician, playing classical guitar. He was also skilled in wood working, making furniture, cabinets and musical instruments.
Forte received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Havana. He chaired the mathematics departments at Jarvis Christian College in Texas and then Athens College before joining the UAH faculty.
He is survived by his wife, Maria, of Huntsville; two sons, Aldo Rafael Forte of Virginia and Carlos Esteban Forte of Mobile; and one grandson.
The family has asked that memorial donations be made to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
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