Joseph A. Sedlar

AS Atmospheric Sciences

The 2016 Division Outstanding Young Scientist Award is awarded to Joseph A. Sedlar for his inspired and creative analyses of Arctic clouds and their impact on the summer surface energy balance of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and for unselfish contributions during Arctic field work.

Joseph (Joe) Sedlar has focused his research on the Arctic climate system and in particular on Arctic clouds and their impact on the surface energy balance over the sea ice and on the vertical structure of the Arctic boundary layer. Already as a PhD-student Sedlar played an integral role in the planning and conduction of the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) on the icebreaker Oden during the International Polar Year in 2008. Later he was also the organizing force behind the deployment of several instruments during the Arctic Clouds in Summer Experiment (ACSE), also on the icebreaker Oden but during the summer of 2014. In between the expeditions Sedlar gained experience working with satellite observations and numerical modeling products. Sedlar has the rare ability to see beyond the data stream of single observations and to instead massage data from several instrument systems and platforms into both understandable conceptual models and quantitative results. This synthesis of results has contributed greatly to our understanding of the role of the atmosphere in the atmospheric Arctic climate system. Meanwhile, Sedlar has also been engaged in fostering and development of new early career scientists in the polar sciences, both by advising new young graduate students an engaging in organizations like APECS.