DRI's 2002 Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award Presented to University of Washington Ph.D. Student

The Desert Research Institute has awarded the 2002 Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences to Roberta Quadrelli, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington. The $1,000 annual award was established in 1998 by former Nevada Lt. Governor Sue Wagner in memory of her husband, Peter, a DRI scientist who died in the 1980 crash of a DRI research aircraft. The purpose of the national paper competition is to encourage women graduate students in the atmospheric sciences.

Quadrelli's research topic concerned the interaction of the tropical Pacific Ocean's El Niño phenomenon-which periodically influences weather over many areas of the world during cycles spanning several years-and the winter storm-inducing cycles that develop in northern polar latitudes and create repetitive storm cycles called Arctic oscillations in northern mid-latitudes. These oscillations shift the most intense storm activity to different regions of the northern hemisphere, often several times during a winter season.

Quadrelli's analysis found that during warm El Niño events, when ocean temperatures rise off the coast of California, the Arctic oscillation tends to influence northern hemisphere winters more strongly, particularly in Siberia. However, the variability of northern winter storm patterns is heavily influenced in either cold or warm El Niño events. She found that the prevailing pressure systems over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans tended to be the same during the cold phase of an El Niño cycle.

Applicants for the Wagner Award must be pursuing a masters or Ph.D. in a program of atmospheric sciences or a related field and must submit a paper based on original research directly related to the identification, clarification, and/or resolution of an atmospheric or climatic problem.
See http://ia.dri.edu/Wagner for additional information.