Big Ups for Atmospheric Sciences at the U

Faculty from the University of Utah Department of Atmospheric Sciences won two major University-wide awards this year with Dr. Kevin Perry Receiving the Presidential Societal Impact Scholar Award and myself a Distinguished Teaching Award.

Kevin's award stems from his work illustrating the climate and health effects of dust from the exposed lake bed of the Great Salt Lake.  This is a project born from intellectual curiosity and personal drive and in it's early stages was largely unfunded.  Kevin rose a fat bike across the exposed lake bed, collecting samples and illustrating the toxic composition of dust from the lake bed.  This has helped to identify a critical health issue and motivate efforts to save the Great Salt Lake.  

You can read more about the Kevin's efforts in this 2019 article from the Salt Lake Tribune.  

I was deeply honored to receive a Distinguished Teaching Award and would like to thank everyone who has read this blog, attended one of my public talks, or taken one of my classes for motivating me to try and become a more effective science communicator and teacher.  When I started this blog in 2010 (yes, it was a long time ago), I had no idea where it would lead.  It eventually led me to publish Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth and develop an online, general education science class of the same name.  That class now has almost 500 students.  Who knew so many University of Utah students were interested in snow?  Well, I confess that I had a pretty good idea that a science class built around snow and skiing might be popular, but it took a village to build a great online class.  Much thanks to the colleagues and consultants who I've worked with, University of Utah Digital Learning Technologies, University Connected Learning, Teaching and Learning Assistants, and many others.