Dr. Vanda Grubisic receives DRI's 2003 Wagner "Young Scientist" Award
Desert Research Institute scientist Vanda Grubisic [groo-bi-shich] has been selected to receive DRI's 2003 Peter B. Wagner Medal of Excellence, an award for outstanding scientific accomplishments by DRI faculty in the early stages of their careers. Dr. Grubisic, who investigates the influence of mountainous terrain on regional airflow and precipitation patterns, will receive a $1,000 prize and a minted medal for the award, named in honor of a DRI atmospheric scientist who died in the crash of a research aircraft in 1980.
Grubisic’s work has involved investigations of complex airflow patterns in wakes that occur in regional airflow on the downwind side of large mountain ranges. She has had an important scientific role in the Mesoscale Alpine Programme, a major, multi-year international study of airflow and precipitation in the European Alps that included advanced computer simulation models and numerous airborne observations. She is currently taking a leading role on similar studies to improve understanding of atmospheric conditions and airflow patterns in the Sierra Nevada.
Grubisic is also the lead scientist in the University and Community College System of Nevada’s Advanced Computing in Environmental Sciences Program, a $3.4 million project funded by the National Science Foundation that links computational scientists and research facilities at DRI and the University of Nevada campuses in Reno and Las Vegas.
Since joining DRI’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences in 1999, Grubisic has published in major scientific journals and given invited research presentations at top meetings in the United States and Europe. As the principal or co-principal investigator on several major research programs at DRI, Grubisic has attracted several million dollars in scientific support to the institute.
Peter B. Wagner’s widow, Sue Wagner, a member of the Nevada Gaming Control Board and formerly Nevada lieutenant governor and state senator, established the award in 1998. She also established the Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences, an annual national award to encourage women to study in that field.
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 $37 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.
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