LETTER FROM HEADQUARTERS EXTeNDING ACCeSS TO THe AMS JOURNaLS core mission of the AMS is the dissemination The Society also recently extended its strong com- of peer-reviewed research results. This month, mitment to making peer-reviewed literature accessible A the Society makes a significant advance in that to the developing world. The Society has a long history mission. of providing AMS journals in print, online, and CD- The policy in place prior to this month made all ROM to over 120 institutions in the developing world journal articles freely available five years after pub- (with generous support from NASA, NOAA’s climate lication, but this past fall the AMS Council voted to programs, and the National Weather Service). More reduce that delay to only two years, and that decision recently, the AMS has become a partner in the Online has now been implemented. This makes even more Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) ini- current research results available to all without jeop- tiative, making the AMS journals available to an even ardizing the subscription revenue that is integral to the broader audience of scientists in the developing world Society’s ability to carry out the stringent peer-review (see www.oaresciences.org for more information on required to produce high-quality publications. It was this important international program). clear from the recent AMS Member Survey (as it has A method of disseminating research results that is been from prior surveys) that the community sees becoming more widespread is institutional open access the publication of peer-reviewed journals as among repositories. The AMS is working to develop ways to the most important functions of the Society, and that allow authors to use the definitive version of their articles the AMS journals continue to be highly respected when participating in repositories at their institutions. around the world for their thorough peer review and Through opening access to more of the online high-quality editing and production. database, ensuring the literature gets to scientists in As always, the entire journal database — including the developing world, and working with institutional accepted manuscripts not yet formally published — is repositories, the Society is continually improving dis- searchable by all, with access restricted to subscribers semination of the peer-reviewed research results for the full text of Early Online Release manuscripts generated by the community we serve. and articles from the most recent two years. And, also as always, all the peer-reviewed BAMS articles available through the journals online are open to all immediately through Early Online Release (with the digital edition of the entire magazine available to all KEITH L. SEITTER , CCM individual members). EXE c UTIVE DIRE c TOR AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY JANUARY 2010 | 117 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/28/21 06:07 AM UTC MEET ThE AMS PeGGY LeMONe 2010 AMS President eggy LeMone’s interest in weather started in boundary-layer interactions with clouds, primarily childhood when lightning struck her house in using data from near Puerto Rico and the tropical P Columbia, Missouri. Fortuitously, this was East Atlantic (GARP Atlantic Tropical Experi- the night before her third-grade show-and-tell, ment), as part of a group led by Ed Zipser. From the and Peggy proudly showed pieces of debris from early 1980s to around 2000, Peggy focused on the the roof, chimney, and lawn furniture. Watching mesoscale structure of tropical deep convection, its her mother struggle as a widow with four young impact on the wind profile, the associated up- and children going back to school for downdrafts, and the relationship anesthesia training in the 1950s of convective structure to environ- and working as sole breadwinner mental conditions. She was active in through the late 1960s sparked both the tropical meteorology and Peggy’s interest in improving the job mesoscale meteorology STAC com- situation for women. mittees in the 1980s. “Seeing a television film of Joanne “By the late 1990s, I was again Simpson talking about clouds put the focusing on boundary layer research, pieces together for me,” says Peggy. but this time over land in the mid- “It showed me that it was actually latitudes, which has led to my present possible for me to make weather a interest in land–atmosphere interac- lifetime career.” tion,” Peggy says. “Most recently, I Peggy attended the University of have attended some boundary layer Missouri, paying tuition by working and turbulence meetings, but have part time in the Atmospheric Science Department. focused mostly on the hydrology conferences.” Missouri gave her a good background in physics, Peggy has enjoyed reviewing papers for AMS chemistry, and mathematics, as well as atmospheric journals, and served as an editor for the Journal of sciences. the Atmospheric Sciences. “Grant Darkow, my supervisor during that time, Peggy first joined AMS while in Seattle, but didn’t was an excellent mentor and teacher,” Peggy com- attend her first Annual Meeting until after arriving ments. “He not only helped me choose a graduate at NCAR. She was immediately made welcome by school, but faithfully showed me the ‘Picture of the Evelyn Mazur and Ken Spengler. Month’ that appeared at the back of the Monthly “I can remember being awestruck by meeting Weather Review at that time.” people whose names I had heard in my classes at Since there wasn’t a local AMS chapter, the pro- graduate school or whose papers I had read,” Peggy fessors drove the students up to see talks at chapter says. “About that time, I was one of three young meetings in Kansas City, where Peggy first met Ed people asked to attend an AMS Council meeting in Lorenz and Vern Suomi. Boston to find out what the AMS could do to encour- Following Darkow’s advice, Peggy attended the age the participation of young people.” University of Washington in Seattle. After receiving Partially because of that meeting, the AMS started her Ph.D. in 1972, she joined the National Center for an Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of Women in Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Her research has re- Meteorology, and Walt Roberts asked Peggy to chair lied primarily on field measurements, but has always the committee. had a numerical-modeling component through col- “Out of this grew a session on the ‘Status of laborations. During the 1970s, she studied the struc- Women in Meteorology’ at the 1975 Annual Meet- ture and dynamics of the circulations associated ing in Denver,” says Peggy. “The concerns of women with cloud streets, as well as marine atmospheric were aired from several points of view, including 118 | JANUARY 2010 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/28/21 06:07 AM UTC the plight of the very traditional women like my talk led to the 1993 color publication, The Stories own mother, women striking out on nontraditional Clouds Tell. career paths, statistics on women, and a summary of “I subsequently worked with Project LEARN at the equal-opportunity laws that had been recently NCAR, developing materials and presenting at teach- passed.” ers’ workshops,” says Peggy. “From 2003 to 2009, I This was followed by an appointment as the head was also the GLOBE chief scientist, vetting content of the Board on Women and Minorities. Peggy was for scientific accuracy and currency, giving talks at elected to the Council in the late 1970s and served a workshops, writing a blog for teachers and students second term on the Council from 1993 to 1996. featuring simple science that one can do in their Peggy notes that an initial important source of backyard or at school, and clarifying issues related her involvement in education and outreach was Lou to climate change in teacher- and student-friendly Battan, who suggested her as someone who could re- language.” view elementary school books on science. In graduate In all these endeavors, Peggy has found effective school, she was part of a group who shared their new communication to be of paramount importance, cloud photographs weekly. This interest followed her whether it is the use of clear language and figures to NCAR, where she gave informal talks on clouds to in a scientific publication; respecting the audience the staff. Ira Geer of the AMS Education Department and their life experiences in the case of educating asked Peggy to give the talk to the Project Atmosphere young people, teachers, or the public about basic Teachers, something she did for several years. That atmospheric sciences; new findings about weather S:7 in S:4.875 in WE LIVE IN THE HOUSE WE ALL BUILD. We choose the world we live in, so make the right choices. Earth Share supports more than 400 environmental and conservation organizations that impact you every day. Visit us at earthshare.org AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY JANUARY 2010 | 119 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/28/21 06:07 AM UTC and climate; or discussing women’s issues. Peggy “I was pleased to find that AMS has developed believes that perhaps the most difficult but also most courses that are widely used by community col- important trait is the ability to listen when commu- leges, since this exposes larger numbers of young nicating with anyone, which influenced her choice of people to our exciting field, and perhaps gives yet “communication” for the theme of the 2011 Annual another young weather enthusiast an introduction Meeting. to the field at an affordable price,” says Peggy. “I As AMS president, Peggy wants to follow the com- will support AMS efforts in fostering the collabora- munication theme by adopting a “listening” philoso- tion of our three sectors, particularly in developing phy to support the AMS in responding in real ways a collaborative mesoscale national observational to the results of the recent AMS survey, while ever infrastructure that serves the public as well as mindful of the Society’s strategic goals and basic vi- specific applications in government, industry, and sion “to advance the atmospheric and related sciences, academia.