Lisa Marie Goddard (September 23, 1966 – January 13, 2022) was an American climate scientist who was director at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). She joined the institute in 1995[1] and served as IRI's director from 2012 to 2020.[2] Goddard was also an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University.[3]
Lisa Goddard | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lisa Marie Goddard September 23, 1966 |
| Died | January 13, 2022 (aged 55) Mount Kisco, New York, U.S. |
| Education | University of California, Berkeley (BA) Princeton University (PhD) |
| Spouse | David Cooperberg |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Climate scientist |
| Institutions | Columbia University |
| Thesis | The energetics of interannual variability in the tropical Pacific Ocean (1995) |
| Doctoral advisor | S. George Philander |
Her research focused on forecasting methodology, seasonal climate forecasting and verification, climate change projections and especially on the interpretation of climate models and available observations.[4][5] She was involved in activities of the World Climate Research Programme and acted as co-chair in CLIVAR from 2013 to 2015.[6]
Biography
editLisa Goddard graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in physics in 1988. She received a PhD in atmospheric and oceanic sciences at Princeton University in 1995 under George Philander.[1][4] She joined IRI as a postdoctoral fellow immediately following her PhD, and spent her entire career there, eventually rising to the Director of the IRI, which position she held from 2012 to 2020.[3][2]
She began her career at a time when the importance of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation to seasonal weather patterns was just beginning to be understood.[4] The focus of her research would become weather forecasting on seasonal to decadal scales. She sought to provide people with near-term information about weather hazards such as droughts, heat-waves, floods.[1] During the course of her career she collaborated with governments and non-profits in dozens of countries to provide useful short-term forecasts for agriculture, public health, emergency planning and energy production.[4]
Goddard held a number of influential positions during her career. From 2009 to 2017, she was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Board of Atmospheric Science and Climate.[4] She co-chaired World Climate Research Programme's CLIVAR project from 2013 to 2015.[4]
She married David Cooperberg and had two sons.[4] Goddard died from breast cancer in Mount Kisco, New York, on January 13, 2022, at the age of 55.[1]
Selected publications
editDuring her career, she contributed to more than 100 research articles.[7] Many of her most prominent works were related to the use of weather models to forecast on seasonal to decadal scales, including:
- Gerald A Meehl; Lisa Goddard; James Murphy; Ronald J Stouffer; George Boer; et al. (October 2009). "Decadal prediction: Can it be skillful?". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 90 (10): 1467–1486. doi:10.1175/2009BAMS2778.1. hdl:11343/32785.
- Lisa Goddard; Simon J Mason; Stephen E Zebiak; Chester F Ropelewski; Reid Basher; Mark A Cane (August 2001). "Current approaches to seasonal to interannual climate predictions". International Journal of Climatology. 21 (9): 1111–1152. Bibcode:2001IJCli..21.1111G. doi:10.1002/joc.636. S2CID 129691453.
- Gerald A Meehl; Lisa Goddard; George Boer; Robert Burgman; Grant Branstator; et al. (February 2014). "Decadal climate prediction: an update from the trenches". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 95 (2): 243. Bibcode:2014BAMS...95..243M. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00241.1. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-000F-E747-9. S2CID 20657966.
- Lisa Goddard; A Kumar; A Solomon; D Smith; G Boer; et al. (August 2012). "A verification framework for interannual-to-decadal predictions experiments" (PDF). Climate Dynamics. 40 (1–2): 245–272. doi:10.1007/s00382-012-1481-2. S2CID 10125014.
References
edit- ^ a b c d Clay Risen (January 22, 2022). "Lisa Goddard, 55, Dies; Brought Climate Data to Those Who Needed It". The New York Times.
- ^ a b "Lisa Goddard, 9/23/1966-1/13/2022". Columbia Climate School International Research Institute For Climate And Society. January 14, 2022.
- ^ a b "Curriculum Vitae: Lisa Goddard" (PDF). Columbia University.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kevin Karjick (January 21, 2022). "Lisa Goddard: Led Global Efforts to Advance Near-Term Climate Forecasting". Columbia Climate School.
- ^ "Lisa Goddard". Aspen Global Change Institute.
- ^ "In Memoriam Lisa Goddard". World Climate Research Programme.
- ^ "Google Scholar: Lisa Goddard".