The Desert Research Institute will award the 1999 Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in the Atmospheric Sciences to Paquita Zuidema of the University of Colorado at Boulder, DRI President Stephen G. Wells and former Nevada Lt. Gov. Sue Wagner announced.
The $1,000 award was established by Mrs. Wagner in memory of her husband, Peter, a DRI scientist who died in the 1980 crash of a DRI research aircraft. The purpose of the award is to encourage women graduate students in the atmospheric sciences and the selection for the competitive award is based on submission of a scientific paper.
Ms. Zuidema's paper was an analysis of tropical cloud formations using data from a major global atmospheric study conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She is the second recipient of the Wagner Memorial Award, following the selection of Jennifer Barnett of the University of Utah in 1998.