On August 13, 2019, the U.S. Government Executive Media Group announced George J. Magee George J. Magee Professor Emeritus Jorge Sarmiento a recipient of a Theodore Roosevelt Government Leadership Award (Teddies) in the category of “Partners.”  This newly established award was announced on the Government Executive online magazine in order to commemorate the publication’s 50th anniversary. The program’s mission is to show appreciation to distinguished federal officials and industry partners for outstanding achievement in assisting with the government’s promise to serve on behalf of the American public. Prof. Sarmiento was one of three recipients who were recognized in cross-sectional work that instituted a long-lasting partnership with the federal government.

Jorge Sarmiento is currently the director of the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling Program (SOCCOM), a 6-year NSF funded program, established in 2014, to deploy 200 biogeochemical Argo floats and carry out associated modeling and data interpretation.  Prof. Sarmiento is responsible for the founding of a collaboration between Princeton University and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory titled Cooperative Institute for Climate Science (CICS, 2003), which has grown to be now called the Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System (CIMES, 2018). The work of CIMES is carried out by the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) Program, an autonomous program in the Department of Geosciences. The director of GFDL and close associate Ram Ramaswamy provided a congratulatory statement on Prof. Sarmiento’s behalf:

“It gives us great pleasure and pride to congratulate you on your selection as one of the inaugural recipients of Government Executive's Theodore Roosevelt Government Leadership Award in the "Partners" category. The impact that has been made through the multi-decade partnership that you have successfully forged between Princeton and NOAA has been innovative, and in taking on the tough Earth System Science challenges important to the nation and the world especially in modeling. Another superlative outcome of the Princeton-NOAA partnership has been the training of the next generation of scientists in the field. GFDL could not have done this alone. We are extremely appreciative of your significant contribution to the advancement of the scientific frontiers, and that of the NOAA mission, through your leadership of the Cooperative Institute at Princeton. A truly well-deserved honor!”

Please join the Department of Geosciences in congratulating Prof. Sarmiento at his time of recognition.