Jennifer Mahoney chosen as 2019 ATS Outstanding Alum

Jennifer Mahoney has been selected as the 2019 CSU ATS Outstanding Alum. Mahoney received her M.S. from the department in 1992. She was advised by Professor Tom McKee, who nominated her for the award. Her thesis was “Synoptic and Mesoscale Features in Colorado Winter Storms: A Climatology.”

Mahoney, who was employed by NOAA before she began at CSU, has risen steadily through the ranks of NOAA leadership. She recently was promoted to Director of the Earth System Research Laboratory’s Global Systems Division, one of four divisions at ESRL, where she directly oversees more than 200 research scientists and engineers.

Mahoney was part of the GSD management team that successfully developed and then transitioned the High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model into operation. It is now the premier short-term forecast model used by NOAA and by the FAA for aviation weather, and one example from her extensive record of transitioning scientific advances into operations. She has received numerous awards over the years, including a 2016 NOAA Research Employee of the Year Award for Leadership.

Mahoney’s Outstanding Alum Award will be presented Nov. 12 in ATS 101, with a reception beginning at 3:30 p.m. She hopes to meet with faculty and Ph.D. students working in her primary areas of interest before the event.

“I am very interested in building collaborations around the topics of cloud computing, high-resolution modeling (including physics, data assimilation), and decision support/social science applications,” she said.