NOAA Research scientists named AAAS Fellows

NOAA scientists Patricia Quinn, Ph.D., of the Pacific Marine Environmental Lab, and Leo Donner, Ph.D., of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab, were named today as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers, based on their distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. This year 443 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS. 

Probing impact of atmospheric particles on climate

Quinn was elected an AAAS Fellow for her exceptional scientific contributions to our understanding of fine liquid or solid particles in the atmospheric called aerosols and their impact on climate. She has been part of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab for more than 25 years and currently leads the Atmospheric Chemistry group, which is studying the effects of atmospheric aerosols on air quality and climate. 

She has participated in research cruises since 1986, studying a broad range of aerosol types from marine aerosols in the Arctic and Antarctic to pollution aerosols in the Houston Ship Channel and oil and gas fields of Utah’s Uintah Basin. Quinn has been recognized as a highly cited researcher in the Web of Science for 2016, 2017 and 2018 and was named an AGU Fellow in 2010.

Leo Donner

Leo Donner, physical scientist at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, has been named an AAAS Fellow.

Advancing Earth System models

Donner was elected an AAAS Fellow for advancing our understanding of atmospheric convection and its treatment in Earth System Models, and service to the climate science community.  He is widely recognized for his novel work on cloud and convective processes in the atmospheric general circulation. His research has yielded important insights about interactions between processes on the scales of clouds and convective systems and large-scale atmospheric flows.  

Donner has been with GFDL since 1991, and has been a lecturer at Princeton University since 1993.  His contributions to atmospheric science have been recognized with numerous awards from the Department of Commerce, NASA, and the University of Michigan Alumni Society. He also became a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 2019.

In addition to Quinn and Donner, Christa G. von Hillebrandt-Andrade, manager of the NOAA National Weather Service Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program, was elected an AAAS Fellow.

This year’s AAAS Fellows will be formally announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on November 29, 2019.  New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Saturday, February 15, 2020 at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington. 

For more information, please contact Monica Allen, NOAA Communications, at 301-734-1123 or by email at monica.allen@noaa.gov