The AMS is clearly the nation’s preeminent professional organization serving the atmospheric sciences community and the general public, providing resources to help strengthen the weather, water, and climate sciences. It is my desire to ensure our world-class organization can serve the nation for decades to come. To maintain its premier status in the future, I see several challenges that I would like to help the AMS address.
The continued strength of the weather, climate, and water enterprise depends on ensuring there will always be talented individuals to participate in the future workforce. I believe I can help the AMS address this issue by developing policies of inclusion to ensure the participation of a diverse group of people in all its activities, including a diversity of experience, disciplines, age, gender, ethnic and racial backgrounds, sexual orientation, and other experiences that will benefit the AMS mission.
The AMS is an important nonpartisan, trusted scientific organization, functioning as an honest information broker for the nation, and it must remain this way to be effective. This role is critically important in a society that finds itself constantly engaged in political wrangling on important societal issues. I will help to maintain this important role for the AMS within the enterprise and support fact-based scientific discourse in all of the Society’s policy programs, and help find ways for the AMS to continue educating the nation on these important topics.
Like many other organizations, the AMS will constantly be challenged to keep up with technological advances that would serve its members well, particularly in an increasingly mobile society. This is especially important for members of the organization who have limited travel opportunities. I will work with the AMS to continue looking for more opportunities to allow people to participate remotely and collaboratively in AMS conferences and other activities.
Cortinas, John V., Jr., Director, NOAA/OAR Office of Weather and Air Quality, Silver Spring, Maryland. Born January 28, 1964, Grand Island, Nebraska. B.S. Meteorology, Metropolitan State University, Denver, Colorado, 1987; Ph.D. Geophysical Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, 1992.
Professional Experience: Research Scientist, University of Oklahoma/Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS), Norman, OK, 1992-2003; Assistant Director for NOAA Relations, CIMMS, Norman, OK, 2000-2003; Cooperative Institute Program Director, NOAA/OAR, Silver Spring, MD, 2003-2010; Senior Advisor for Strategic Plan Development, Office of the White House/U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, 2008-2009.
Professional Activities: Member, Sigma Xi, 1999-present; NSF Geosciences Program Committee, 2001-2003; Lifetime Member, 1987-present, Board of Directors Member, 1998-2000, and National Treasurer, 2000-2001, Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences; Member, National Weather Association, 1992-present; Member, Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, 1999-2005; Member, American Geophysical Union, 2002-present; Chairperson, NOAA Center for Atmospheric Science Scientific Advisory Panel, Howard University, 2002-2012; Member, NWS Meteorological Development Lab High Level Advisory Committee, 2012-2014.
AMS Activities: Member, American Meteorological Society, 1983 – present; Associate Editor: Weather and Forecasting, 1996-1998; Associate Editor: Monthly Weather Review, 2000-2001; Chairperson, AMS Minority Scholarship Committee, 2000; Member, AMS Board on Women and Minorities, 1995-1999; Member, Weather Analysis and Forecasting Committee, 2003-2005.
Honors and Awards: Presidential Fellowship, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1987-1991; NOAA/OAR Scientific Paper of the Year, 1999; Hispanic Engineer Magazine 2002 Power Hitters, 2002; NOAA Special Act Award, 2005; Spectrum Science Magazine Trailblazer Award, 2006; Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award, 2013.
Publications: Cortinas has authored and co-authored 10 articles and a book chapter. These publications include: Wandishin, M., M. Baldwin, S. Mullen, and J. Cortinas, 2005: Short-range ensemble forecasts of precipitation type. Wea. Forecasting, 20, 609-626; Cortinas, J., B. Bernstein, C. Robbins, and J. Strapp, 2004: An analysis of freezing rain, freezing drizzle, and ice pellets across the United States and Canada: 1976-1990, Wea. Forecasting, 19, 377-390; Cortinas, J. and W. Blier, 2002: Operational Meteorology. Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences, Academic Press, Vol. 4, 1567-1576; Robbins, C., and J. Cortinas, 2002: An investigation of the local and synoptic environments associated with freezing rain in the contiguous United States, Wea Forecasting, 17, 47-65; Cortinas, J, 2000: A climatology of freezing rain over the Great Lakes region of North America, Mon. Wea Rev., 128, 3574-3588; Stensrud, D., J. Cortinas, and H. Brooks, 1997: Discriminating between tornadic and nontornadic thunderstorms using mesoscale model output. Wea. Forecasting, 12, 613-632.