Wagner Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences
About the Wagner Award
Ms. Sue Wagner—Nevada Gaming Commissioner, former Nevada Lieutenant Governor, DRI employee, and widow of Dr. Peter B. Wagner—created the Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences in 1998.
Peter Wagner
Dr. Peter B. Wagner, an atmospheric scientist who had been a faculty member at the Desert Research Institute since 1968, was killed while conducting research in a 1980 plane crash that also claimed the lives of three other Institute employees.
In 1981, Dr. Wagner’s family and friends established a memorial scholarship to provide promising graduate students in the Desert Research Institute’s Atmospheric Sciences Program a cash award to further their professional careers. Ms. Wagner later extended that opportunity nationally and specifically for women, through the creation of the Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award in 1998.
The Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences is based on a paper competition and awarded to a woman pursuing a Masters or Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences or a related program at a university in the United States. The amount of the award is $1,500.
Eligibility
To be eligible, applicants must be pursuing a Masters or Ph.D. in a program of atmospheric sciences or a related field at a university in the United States as of the application deadline date. Applicants must submit a paper based on original research directly related to the identification, clarification, or resolution of an atmospheric or climatic problem.
Selection Criteria
The Selection Committee is composed of faculty from the Atmospheric Sciences Graduate Program. Papers will be evaluated based on the following content areas:
- Originality of ideas expressed and presentation of concept;
- How well the subject matter relates to real-world atmospheric or climatic problems or their resolution; and
- How well the research is defined by the introduction, methods, results, and conclusions of the manuscript.
An entry into this competition can be based on a manuscript that has been either submitted, accepted for publication, or appeared in press within the past 12 month before the application deadline. Authors are encouraged to address broader impacts of their work for the field of atmospheric sciences. Manuscripts submitted for consideration for this award should be a report of work done primarily by the applicant. The applicant should be the first author but not necessarily the single author. The submitted manuscript should be in a form acceptable for publication in a scientific journal. Length should be no more than 15 pages of double-spaced text, exclusive of figures, title page, and references using minimum 12-point font. Reprints of published papers will be accepted if it appeared in press within the past 12 months. Submitted manuscripts will be reviewed by the Award Selection Committee.
An applicant should submit a PDF file of the full manuscript and a cover letter describing her graduate program of study by email to Vera Samburova vera.samburova@dri.edu.
Updated Deadline: June 14, 2024
Dr. Vera Samburova
Chair of the Selection Committee
Wagner Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences
e-mail: vera.samburova@dri.edu
2023 Winner
Andrea Gordon
School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma
Winning Paper: “Sensitivities of Cross-Tropopause Transport in Midlatitude Overshooting Convection to the Lower Stratosphere Environment”
2022 Winner
Lily Hahn
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle
Winning Paper: “Seasonality in Arctic Warming Driven by Sea Ice Effective Heat Capacity”
2021 Winner
Yi Zhang
The Program of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Winning Paper: “Projections of tropical heat stress constrained by atmospheric dynamics”
2020 Winner and Finalists
Winner: Anne E. Barkley
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami
Her winning paper: “African biomass burning is a substantial source of phosphorus deposition to the Amazon, Tropical Atlantic Ocean, and Southern Ocean.“
Finalist: Therese Carter
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Her paper: “How emissions uncertainty influences the distribution and radiative impacts of smoke from fires in North America;” ACP 2020
Finalist: Allison C. Vander Wall
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine
“Evidence for a kinetically controlled burying mechanism for growth of high viscosity secondary organic aerosol;” Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2020“
Finalist: Weimeng Kong
California Institute of Technology
“Rapid growth of new atmospheric particles by nitric acid and ammonia condensation;” Nature 2020
View past winners of the Wagner Award and where they are now.
CONTACT
Vera Samburova, Ph.D.
Chair of the Wagner Selection Committee
Vera.Samburova@dri.edu
LOCATION
Desert Research Institute
2215 Raggio Parkway
Reno, NV 89512
DIVISION
Atmospheric Sciences