Thomas Vonder Haar, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus in atmospheric science, and member of the National Academy of Engineering, has been named an Honorary Member of the American Meteorological Society[1] (AMS).

According to AMS, “Honorary Members shall be persons of acknowledged preeminence in the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences, either through their own contributions to the sciences or their application or through furtherance of the advance of those sciences in some other way.”

Contributions to climate science

Also a founding member of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University and former department head of the Department of Atmospheric Science, Vonder Haar has made many contributions during his 46-year tenure at CSU.

Vonder Haar was involved with NASA’s Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), which was designed at CSU and launched from the space shuttle Challenger in October of 1984. ERBE utilized 20 years of collected observations via satellite data to provide information on the earth’s climate. Vonder Haar’s involvement in ERBE and other projects made him a pioneer in the use of satellite meteorology, and his research in interpreting and analyzing data from satellites laid the groundwork for understanding and describing the world’s climate processes.

His contributions to research are numerous, and Vonder Haar is especially proud of the opportunities he has had to advise 30 Ph.D. graduates from CSU, who have all gone on to professional careers in universities, government research labs or the private sector.

Recognition of Vonder Haar’s accomplishments has been met with appreciation from colleagues in the Department of Atmospheric Science. “This exceptional award adds to a long list of recognition for Professor Vonder Haar, who conducted pioneering work on global energy and water budgets and remote sensing of the atmosphere via satellite over the past five decades,” said department head Jeff Collett.

Vonder Haar will be formally recognized at the AMS annual meeting in Seattle in January 2017.