Nobel Peace Prize 2007…

In case you missed it, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Al Gore and the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change” (citation).

The IPCC contributed to this effort by releasing the Fourth Assessment Report which provided the peer-reviewed scientific evidence to support the claim that man-made changes have resulted in climate change.  This report was so compelling that it convinced the Bush administration to finally acknowledge the reality of climate change which will hopefully result in support for policy changes that will address this important issue.  I’d say that was worthy of a Nobel.  😉

So why am I writing about this?  Well as a Unix system administrator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) I had the extreme honor of providing hardware and software support to the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) group who hosted the single data repository used by climate researchers around the world to generate reports for the Fourth Assessment Report.  PCMDI was acknowledged by the IPCC for their role in providing this resource and then Dave Bader (program manager for PCMDI) named the people on his team involved in the effort.  For my role in building, configuring and keeping the data repository online for the duration of the project, Dave included me in that list so as hard as it is for me to believe, I am associated with a Nobel Peace Prize.  =)

The PCMDI team which included software developers, climate scientists and systems support people were honored by director of LLNL, George Miller (pictured bottom right hand corner) at a luncheon at work as well as at the United Nations Day celebration at the International House in Berkeley.

S&T recognition for Nobel Peace Prize

Marshall and I on the balcony of the International House in Berkeley.

Marshall and me on International House balcony

My mom Lynn, me, and my dad Jeff.  I coudn’t ask for better or more supportive parents.  =)

Meemers, me and my dad

Dad, me and Marshall

Herb Berstock introduces us as Nobel Laureates to which we receive a standing ovation.  This has to be one of the my proudest moments knowing that I contributed to something that had such an impact at a global level.

Nobel Laureates

Thanks to Dave Bader for having the vision to provide a centralized shared resource that would enable this kind of science and for being the most amazing supporter and promoter of the people on his team.  We would not have had this opportunity without his excellent leadership.  =)