Easter, Ghan, and Rasch Land in Top One Percent of Geosciences Research
PNNL scientists achieve influential ranking in highly cited researchers list
Congratulations to three scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, all experts in Earth systems analysis and modeling. They have been named to the prestigious 2016 Highly Cited Researcher list from Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters) for Geosciences. Honored are Laboratory Fellows Drs. Phil Rasch and Steven Ghan, along with atmospheric scientist Richard Easter.
The list, released annually, is a worldwide compilation of scientists and social scientists whose study citations rank in the top 1 percent in 21 different fields. The compilation of names, over 3,000 this year, is one measure of the world's most impactful and influential scientific minds. PNNL has six scientists in all who were named to this prestigious list. (See PNNL news release, "PNNL scientists among most influential in the world")
Easter specializes in modeling tropospheric aerosols and trace gases and their interactions with clouds and precipitation. He has had a central role in PNNL's global aerosol, chemistry, and climate modeling, and in modeling studies of aerosols and cloud-aerosol interactions at local and regional scales. This is his second year on the list.
Ghan, an atmospheric and climate scientist, has made seminal contributions to the representation of cloud-aerosol interactions in climate models. He also has pioneered work on how the atmosphere and topography interact to influence climate change in regions with complex terrain. Ghan is on the Department of Energy's Accelerated Climate Modeling for Energy (ACME) leadership team and is subtask coordinator of small-scale elevation variations in global models. He was also named to the 2015 list.
Rasch is PNNL's Chief Scientist for Climate Science and was named to the 2014 and 2015 Highly Cited Researchers lists. He has done research in general circulation, atmospheric chemistry, and global climate modeling, but has a special interest in the impact of aerosols and clouds on climate; their interactive processes; and the related computational details needed for computer models. He is a member of the ACME project council and co-lead in developing the atmospheric model for the project.
View a full list of the most-cited researchers of 2016 and the list's method and purpose.
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Published: December 5, 2016