The UEC is eager to engage with you. This is a quarterly message from UEC Chair Jennifer “Jen” Delamere. You can learn more about her in this 2021 UEC profile.
Thanks to Past Members and Excitement About the New Group
At the beginning of 2023, I had the privilege of becoming the ARM UEC chair, taking the reins from Allison Aiken. Allison was generous with her time to the UEC, always ensuring the meeting agendas were set, presenting numerous opportunities to the ARM community to have their voice heard, and building a solid framework for me as chair. For this, I am grateful! To all the outgoing members of the 2021–2022 UEC, you made our quarterly meetings productive by presenting innovative ideas to move new initiatives forward. And, finally, a big thank you to ARM Director Jim Mather for guiding the succession of ARM UEC chairs and vice-chairs.
Four dedicated members of the ARM community previously held the UEC chair position: Allison, Sébastien Biraud, Larry Berg, and Dave Turner. Allison, Sébastien, Larry, and Dave put unique signatures on their time as chairs.
My immediate predecessor, Allison, was instrumental in setting up UEC subgroups to address important topics within the ARM community:
- enhancing communication with the satellite community
- enhancing communication with the modeling and DOE Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) communities
- measurement uncertainty and communicating calibrations
- undergraduate engagement with a focus on diversity.
Comprising four to six UEC members each, these subgroups yielded an array of recommendations and accomplishments summarized in a 2022 series of blog posts. Highlights included fostering new interactions between the satellite community and ARM as well as engaging a diversity, equity, and inclusion speaker, Emily Fischer, for the Joint ARM User Facility/Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting in 2022.
During Sébastien’s time as chair (2019–2020), he facilitated improved data discovery by connecting the UEC with the ARM Data Services team. Larry used his time as chair (2017–2018) to focus the UEC on reaching out to scientists and organizations outside the ARM/ASR community and to add input on videos and social media posts that explained ARM acronyms. As the first chair from 2015–2016, Dave set the direction of the group.
Building on Earlier UEC Work
To guide my time as the UEC chair, I will use the wise words of Ben Franklin, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” To that end, the UEC will continue to invest time in the slate of subgroups described above. Each subgroup will have a new leader to craft tangible outcomes from these next two years, and we will invite each subgroup leader to write a blog about their activities.
For my part, I would like to expand interactions between the ASR working groups and the UEC. The ASR working groups are rich with ARM experience. Their members use ARM facilities during field campaigns, download data from ARM Data Discovery for their research, and attend the annual ARM/ASR PI meetings. The UEC can be an effective conduit to take lessons learned from ASR working groups to the ARM leadership team.
Finally, I’d like to invest in expanded communications between the UEC and those who use ARM fixed and mobile facilities for guest instrument deployment or specialized field campaigns.
New UEC Ready to Serve You
We held our first virtual meeting with the new UEC on January 23, 2023, during which we reviewed the accomplishments of the previous UEC and laid out a plan for this term’s UEC, including meeting schedules, the election of a vice-chair, and the format of the subgroups.
This UEC comes from a wide range of research disciplines, with home bases crisscrossing the United States. Our new members are fully invested in the UEC’s mission to provide objective, timely feedback to ARM leadership with respect to the user experience.
If you want to learn more about the role of the UEC, our charter provides all the details.
We look forward to meeting you at the 2023 ARM/ASR PI meeting in August. And, of course, you are always welcome to reach out to UEC members via the ARM website with comments and suggestions.
All the best to you as the spring flowers bloom and your research endeavors flourish.
Jen Delamere