Second Try a Charm for NOAA Administrator’s Boulder Visit
Anatta
NOAA Communications and External Affairs
June 23, 2009 — A spectacular spring day filled with sunshine and wildflowers, along with some very excited employees, greeted NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco during her first trip to NOAA’s Boulder, Colo., campus on May 29.
NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco answers questions from NOAA employees during a May 29 town hall meeting in Boulder, Colo. Photo credit: Steve Peckham, NOAA.
The visit was Dr. Lubchenco’s second attempt to tour NOAA’s largest facility outside of the Washington, D.C., area. A winter blizzard derailed her first attempt in late March, just four days after she took office as NOAA under secretary. The snowstorm sent her straight to a conference in Aspen, Colo., whiting out her plans to visit the Boulder campus.
“This is only my second time speaking directly to a group of NOAA employees outside of D.C.,” Dr. Lubchenco announced to a packed town hall meeting at the David Skaggs Research Center. She went on to present her vision for NOAA and thoughtfully responded to a flurry of questions from employees.
NOAA’s Boulder campus, located at the base of the Rocky Mountain foothills, is home to a number of NOAA research centers, laboratories and joint research institutes including the:
- Earth System Research Laboratory;
- National Climatic Data Center – Paleoclimatology Branch;
- National Geophysical Data Center;
- National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office; and the
- National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center
As the day unfolded, Dr. Lubchenco was treated to a host of briefings and enthusiastic presentations by NOAA scientists, researchers, forecasters, and other personnel from Boulder’s laboratories and research centers. The NOAA under secretary also received an entertaining demonstration of the popular Science on a Sphere animated globe.
ESRL Director Sandy MacDonald (left) and ESRL Deputy Director for Administration Don Mock (at right, with back to camera) greet NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco in the lobby of the David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder, Colo. ESRL’s Rhonda Lange (back left, with tote bag) and Jeremy Potter of the Program Coordination Office (next to Lange) arranged the visit. Photo credit: Steve Peckham, NOAA.
Jim Butler, director of the Earth System Research Laboratory’s Global Monitoring Division, demonstrates for Dr. Lubchenco how NOAA measures greenhouse gases, pollutants, and other trace gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Scientist Arlyn Andrews (left), ESRL Director Sandy MacDonald, and ESRL Deputy Director for Administration Don Mock listen in. Photo credit: Steve Peckham, NOAA.
Bernie Meier, NWS senior forecaster, discusses a local weather system with Dr. Lubchenco during her stop at NWS’s Boulder-Denver Weather Forecast Office. Carol Knight, Boulder outreach coordinator from the Earth System Research Laboratory (in background), listens in. Photo credit: Steve Peckham, NOAA.
David Anderson, chief of the Boulder-based Paleoclimatology Branch of the National Climatic Data Center, explains long-term climate to Dr. Lubchenco as Chris Fox, director of the National Geophysical Data Center, looks on. Photo credit: Steve Peckham, NOAA.