(Aug. 29, 2007) - Eight National Weather Service Southern Region employees will be among those honored with NOAA Administrator Awards this year. Retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph. D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, will present the awards during a special ceremony in Silver Spring, Md., September 25.
The recipients include SRH Dissemination Enhancement Team Chief Paul Kirkwood, Techniques Development Meteorologist Keith Stellman, WFO Huntsville Meteorologist-in-Charge John M. Coyne and Information Technology Officer Jason Burks. They are being recognized for their roles in the development of the new Radar Integrated Display with Geospatial Elements (RIDGE) system. This innovative Geographic Information Systems-based technology provides critical radar data and imagery for NOAA National Weather Service partners and customers.
Stellman was also part of a team that included SRH Hydrologic Services Branch Chief Ben Weiger, West Gulf River Forecast Center Senior Hydrologist Frank Bell and Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center Hydrologist-in-Charge David Reed. The team is being honored for developing an experimental precipitation analysis information web site designed for the Continental United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The site graphically illustrates short-term observed and climatic precipitation trends across the lower 48 states and Puerto Rico.
SRH Climate Services Program Manager Victor Murphy is also being recognized for his contributions to a team responsible for creating a host of new climate information products and services. Created in response to increasing customer requests, the new products and services are designed to help local, state and national officials make economically, socially and environmentally sound choices.
"This is the most prestigious award presented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration," said Steven Cooper, acting director of the NWS Southern Region. "We are all very proud of their achievements and congratulate them, along with all their NOAA colleagues, on being selected as 2007 NOAA Administrator Award recipients."
