DRI’s 2002 Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award goes to University of Washington Ph. D. student
The Desert Research Institute has awarded the 2002 Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in the
Atmospheric Sciences to Roberta Quadrelli, a Ph.D. candidate in atmospheric science at the University at
Washington in Seattle.
The $1,000 annual award was established in 1998 by former Nevada Lt. Gov. Sue 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
national award is to encourage women graduate students in the atmospheric sciences.
Ms. Quadrelli’s research topic concerned the interaction of the tropical Pacific Ocean’s El Nino
phenomenon--which periodically influences weather over many areas of the world during cycles spanning
several years, and the winter storm-inducing cycles that develop in northern polar latitudes and create
repetitive storm cycles called Arctic oscillations in northern mid-latitudes. These oscillations shift
the most intense storm activity to different regions of the northern hemisphere, often several times
during a winter season.
Quadrelli's analysis found that during warm El Nino events, when ocean temperatures rise off the coast of
California, the Arctic oscillation tends to influence northern hemisphere winters more strongly,
particularly in Siberia. She said, however, that the variability of northern winter storm patterns is
heavily influenced in either cold or warm El Nino events. She found that the prevailing pressure
systems over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans tended to be the same during the cold phase of an El Nino
cycle.
Applicants for the Wagner Award must be pursuing a Masters or Ph.D. in a program of atmospheric sciences
or a related field and must submit a paper based on original research directly related to the
identification, clarification, and/or resolution of an atmospheric or climatic problem.
A nonprofit, statewide division of the University and Community College System of Nevada, DRI pursues a
full-time program of basic and applied environmental research on a local, national, and international
scale. Nearly 500 full- and part-time scientists, technicians, and support staff conduct some 150
research projects at DRI annually. More than 85 percent of DRI's annual $33 million operating budget
consists of research grants and contracts obtained by its scientists. The balance is received from the
state of Nevada for administrative costs.