2000| 2001 | 2002

2000

Gold Medal • Evelyn J. Fields, Office of Marine and Aircraft Operations: For leadership, initiative, and dedication in advancing public awareness of NOAA missions and accomplishments. • Bruce B. Parker, NOS: For scientific leadership in conceiving and developing a new program for oceanographic real-time and forecast model systems for ports and bays. • Dennis K. Clark, NESDIS: For achievements in the field of satellite remote sensing of ocean color including development of the Marine Optical Buoy System for ground-truthing satellite observed ocean color. • Tilden Payne Meyers, OAR: For work in improving the measurement and prediction of air-surface exchanges of fundamental quantities such as heat, water vapor, carbon dioxide, and various pollutants. • Petrus P. Tans, OAR: For research in the area of global greenhouse gas measurements and studies leading to a clarification of the importance of the terrestrial biosphere in the global carbon cycle. • Gary C. Matlock, Maria Josephina Uitterhoeve, Sarah A. McLaughlin, Mark A. Murray-Brown, Pasquale J. Scida, Ronald G. Rinaldo, Rebecca J. Lent, Michael B. Fraser, Mariam E. McCall, NMFS and GC: Development of a financially self-sustaining electronic licensing and permitting system for both commercial and recreational fishing. • Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, NWSFO Newport, NC, NWSFO Wakefield, VA, NWSFO Raleigh, NC, NWSFO Wilmington, NC, Southeast River Forecast Center: For their efforts in the early recognition of the disastrous impacts from Hurricane Floyd resulting in saving countless lives.

Silver Medal • William G. Conner, Curtis Paul Carlson, Robert E. Ransom, James Harold Hudson, Douglas R. Helton, William Branyon Goodwin, Nancy J. Daschbach, NOS, Robert M. McNamara Jr., OFA, Linda B. Burlington, GC: For groundbreaking effort to restore natural resources injured by efforts to remove hazardous materials from nine fishing vessels grounded in Pago Pago Harbor, American Samoa. • Garry F. Mayer, James P. Burgess, Christopher D. Doley, Robin J. Bruckner, Eric W. Hutchins, K. Victor Koski, John G. Catena, Richard L. Wantuck, NMFS: For leadership in establishing a grass-roots program for restoring coastal habitats vital to the Nation’s living marine resources. • James P. McVey, OAR: For his role establishing the field of Marine Aquaculture as a national priority leading to the creation of new aquaculture industry sectors and products. • Lans P. Rothfusz, Steven F. Piltz, NWS: For developing implementing the StormReady Program to help cities, counties, and towns prepare for weather-related disasters. • NOAA Finance Office, OFA: For significantly improving NOAA’s financial auditing during the past four fiscal years, culminating in an unqualified audit opinion on the FY99 financial statements. • Allen M. Hittelman, Britt Bassett, NGDC NESDIS, Kent L. Groninger, Jerry B. Janssen, OAR, David S. Groton, OFA, David W. Norcross, Darren L. Smith, NIST: For the development of the Boulder Research and Administrative Network (BRAN). • Timothy J. Schmit, Antonio R. Irving, Jamie M. Daniels, NESDIS: For leadership in research and development of products from the new generation of GOES sounders and imagers. • Russell L. Pfost, Tice H. Wagner, Alan E. Gerard, Michael C. Ryan, Patricia C. Peden, NWS: For working with meteorology department at Jackson State University, a historically black university. • Gregory E. Matzen, NWS: For developing and implementing the Alaska Weather Line, which provides up-to-the second weather warnings, forecasts, and observations. • Space Environment Center, OAR: For developing and implementing Space Weather Scales, which provide users the intrinsically complex space weather information in a simple, comprehensible, and useful format. •Steven R. Barnum, Emily B. Christman, Samuel P. DeBow, NOS, Gerd G. Glang, Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, David M. Feit, James E. Hoke, NWS: For providing critical expertise relevant to the finding and recovery of the submerged wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 990 in November, 1999. • Weather Forecast Office, Corpus Christi, Texas, NWS: For life-saving services before, during, and after Hurricane Bret struck the south coast of Texas on August 22, 1999. • Weather Forecast Office, Fort Worth, Texas, NWS: For life-saving services prior to and during an outbreak of severe weather and tornadoes which struck parts of North Texas on March 28, 2000. • Weather Forecast Office, Paducah, Kentucky, NWS: For life-saving services warning services provided to the citizens of Owensboro, Kentucky, during a devastating F3 tornado on January 3, 2000. • Weather Forecast Office, Tallahassee, Florida, NWS: For life-saving efforts prior to and during an outbreak of severe weather and tornadoes across southwest Georgia on the night of February 13-14, 2000.

2001

Gold Medal • Robert W. Embley, PMEL OAR: For pioneering research in exploring deep ocean volcanic ecosystems leading to the establishment of the world's first deep seafloor observatory. • Radar Meteorology and Oceanography Division , ETL OAR: For the theoretical, experimental, and engineering advances that led to the development of a new technology – an autonomous, ground-based, remote-sensing system to unambiguously detect dangerous in-flight icing conditions in clouds. • Donald Scavia, NOS: For his pivotal role in achieving passage and implementation of the harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 • Allan J. Coker, NMFS, Cynthia S. Fenyk, Office of the Under Secretary: For enforcement work in identifying, investigating and prosecuting extensive and complex violations within the red snapper fishery. • William G. Conner, Carol Ann Manen, David John Chapman, Norman F. Meade, Lisa M. Dipinto, John D. Cubit, NOS, Katherine Ann Pease, Office of the Under Secretary, Mark Helvey, NMFS: Montrose Case Team members, for the extraordinary personal commitment needed to successfully address 50 years of DDT contamination off the California coast. • Thomas A. Flagg, Deborah A. Frost, William C. McAuley, Michael R. Wastel, NMFS: The Redfish Lake Sockeye Salmon Captive Broodstock team, for developing captive rearing broodstock technologies that prevented extinction of the Pacific Northwest's most endangered salmon stock, Redfish Lake sockeye salmon. • Paul A. Jendrowski, NWS: For developing and implementing the Areal Mean basin Estimated Rainfall (AMBER) system to detect and diagnose flash flood potential. • Office of Satellite Operations, NESDIS: For launching, validating and activating three independent weather satellites over one 12-month period. • Scott A. Doyle, NMFS: For investigative excellence for a two-year investigation into the unlawful harvest of Striped Bass from the Hudson River and its subsequent sale in interstate commerce. • Mark H. Pickett, NMFS Pacific Grove Laboratory and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations: For courage and heroism in saving the lives of two U.S. Geological Survey employees after the capsizing of the Channel Islands NMS R/V Ballena on November 4, 2000.

Silver Medal • Mary C. Langlais, OAR: For management practices in reshaping and achieving a more corporate NOAA in three line offices - Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Marine Fisheries Service and National Ocean Service. • Craig Nelson, Office of Marine and Aviation Operations: For leadership, creativity and technical acumen during his stewardship of the tri-agency National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, resulting in dramatic improvements in the quality of short-term warnings and forecasts • Kenneth Putkovich, Lawrence J. Krudwig, Barry L. Reichenbaugh, John Sokich, NWS,George T. Wilcox, Office of the Under Secretary, NWS: For work in expanding the NOAA Weather Radio transmitter network broadcasting weather warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day. • Michael P. Sissenwine, NMFS: For negotiating a resolution to the long-standing adversarial relationship between many New England commercial fishermen and NMFS's scientific research arm. • Lucia S. Tsaoussi , OAR: For affecting a major change in the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System sensor suite, thereby reducing the largest uncertainty in the science of understanding and predicting global climate change. • Tracy A. Dunn, NMFS: For assuring the success of the NOAA and South Carolina Joint Project Agreement for cooperative reinforcement. • Patricia J. Mulligan, NESDIS: For defining, coordinating and integrating the Department's requirements for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. • Weather Forecast Office, Wichita, Kansas, NWS: For life-saving efforts during a devastating tornado that virtually destroyed Parsons, a small southeast Kansas town on April 19, 2000. • Radar Web Display Team, NWS: For designing, developing, testing and managing the nationwide implementation of the National Weather Service's Radar Web Display Team. • James K. Farr, NOS: Recognized for developing a fundamentally new approach for evaluating reactive hazards associated with chemicals spilled in the environment. • Felix Kogan, NESDIS: For developing and implementing vegetation health products from Advanced Very High resolution Radiometer data from NOAA polar orbiting satellites. • Weather Forecast Office, Missoula, Montana, NWS: For response efforts during the historic summer 2000 fire season when over 1.1 million acres were consumed by wildfires and over 320 residences and 550 total structures were lost. • John M. Coyne, NWS: Honored for developing a nationally recognized computer software program which formats warnings and forecast information for NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts. • Dennis W. Thaute, NMFS: For transporting the Coast Guard-seized foreign drift net vessel ARCTIC WIND from Adak to Seward, Alaska, a 1,200-mile transit in challenging waters during which he skillfully addressed two possibly life-threatening situations. • Weather Forecast Office, Birmingham, Alabama, Storm Prediction Center, NWS: For providing numerous accurate and timely severe weather warnings during an unusual winter tornado outbreak on December 16, 2000. • Weather Forecast Office, Phoenix, Arizona, NWS: For providing critical life-saving information up to two days prior to the onset of devastating floods in October 2000. • Weather Forecast Office, Tulsa, Oklahoma, NWS: For forecasting an unprecedented ice storm that struck eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas in December 2000 -- the forecasts and direct coordination with the media and emergency managers gave the public a critical 72-hour heads-up. • Erik C. Zobrist, Richard D. Hartman, Patrick R. Williams, Rachel W. Sweeney, John D. Foret, NMFS: For conceiving, developing, obtaining funding for, and implementing nearly two dozen projects to restore over 20,000 acres and benefit more than 155,000 acres of Louisiana coastal wetlands.

2002

Gold Medal • Roy W. Anderson, Michael L. Aslaksen, Jr., Jason Wyatt Woolard, Edward E. Carlson, Stephen A. Nicklas, William B. Kearse, Jonathan W. Bailey, Michael S. Weaver, William R. Odell, AOC NMAO NGS NOS: For mapping the wreckage site of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. • Michael B. Brown, Marc E. Higgins, David R. Myers, David MacFarland, Nicholas E. Perugini, OCS NOS: For developing and implementing the Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC) program at NOAA. • Direct Services Division SARSAT Team, International and Interagency Affairs Office, NESDIS: For leading the effort to improve the effectiveness of the worldwide Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. • Daniel L. Albritton, Edward J. Dlugokencky, Daniel M. Murphy, Venkatachalam Ramaswamy, Susan Solomon, Ronald J. Stouffer, OAR, Thomas Karl, NCDC NESDIS: For authoring a report entitled Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a definitive evaluation of the current scientific knowledge concerning global climate change. • Margarita Gregg, Timothy Boyer, Todd O’Brien, Catherine Stephens, Daphne Johnson, Sydney Levitus, NODC NESDIS: For unprecedented compilation of historical oceanographic observations leading to the publication of World Ocean Database 1998 and accompanying atlas. • Dale Squired, NMFS: For establishing unprecedented methods to systematically plan and evaluate reductions in fishing capacity. • Scott Doyle, Sara Block, James Cassin,Jr., Christopher Musto, Steven Niemi, Jeffrey Ray, NMFS: For courageous and self-sacrificing acts assisting in the bucket brigades at the World Trade Center site following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. • Michael L. Gill, Richard N. Fallin, NWS: For saving the life of a pilot who was trapped in an overturned plane leaking fuel at Russel, Kansas. • Donald A. King, Andrew P. Justis, NWS: For providing life-saving assistance to a man who flipped an all terrain vehicle and hit a tree in a remote area of Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona. • WFO Houston/Galveston, Texas, NWS: For providing critical life-saving information during catastrophic flooding in Houston, Texas, during and after Tropical Storm Allison that limited the loss of life in the area. • WFO Upton, New York, WFO Sterling, Virginia, NWS: For their support to emergency management following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Silver Medal • Guy Noll, NOS, Office of Marine and Aviation Operations: For improvements in processing hydrographic data, their timely incorporation into NOAA’s nautical products, and technology transfer of new techniques and software to the private sector. • Douglas DeMaster, Shane Capron, Susan Salveson, NMFS, Lauren M. Smoker, GC NMFS: For streamlining the Federal regulatory processes to recover Steller sea lions while minimizing the impact on commercial fisheries. • Paul Raymond, Gregg Houghaboom, Monica Hamm, NMFS: For apprehending criminals involved in an international conspiracy to promote the illegal harvest, transportation, and sale of Honduran spiny lobsters in the U.S. • Harold E. Brooks, OAR: For the development of the first highly accurate and accessible estimates of threats from tornadoes, windstorms, and large hail anywhere in the U.S. • Randall M. Dole, CDC OAR: For developing the Climate Diagnostics Center (CDC) into a widely recognized and well-respected national resource for climate research. • Environmental Modeling Center of NCEP, NWS: For developing and implementing improved numerical forecast systems for global and North American weather and ocean waves. • Thomas B. Ryerson, OAR: For groundbreaking research that has resulted in a new scientific understanding of how the chemistry of the atmosphere is affected by power-generating plants and petrochemical facilities. • Office for Law Enforcement, NMFS: For providing Air Marshal patrols and border, airport, and ship port security in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.