ARM Recognizes Exceptional Contributions by Staff

Published: 17 July 2025

1 individual and 4 teams honored with 2025 ARM Service Awards

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility held its seventh annual ARM Service Awards on May 27, 2025. ARM Director Jim Mather announced the honors, acknowledging staff for their outstanding service and invaluable contributions to ARM and its users, during a virtual all-hands meeting.

One individual awardee and members of the four winning teams received certificates, which include signatures from ARM and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) leadership, and challenge coins.

In April 2025, ARM leadership sought nominations from staff and the broader scientific user community, resulting in 33 submissions for 13 individuals and 13 teams. After thorough review, ARM’s Infrastructure Management Board selected the honorees.

“As always, I really appreciated reading all the nominations,” says Mather. “Individuals and teams have made impacts in so many positive ways, and it is heartening to see others recognizing these efforts.”

The 2025 award winners are:

Michael Ritsche, former manager of the Southern Great Plains and Bankhead National Forest (BNF) atmospheric observatories from Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, for his vision and leadership during a career full of exceptional contributions to ARM and the user community. Over nearly 25 years, his work spanned instrument mentorships, ARM Mobile Facility construction and operations, and observatory management. Ritsche was also a strong advocate for the pursuit of an observatory in Alabama’s Bankhead National Forest. While he has stepped away from his management roles, he continues to engage with ARM part time. ARM thanks Ritsche for all the ways he has supported (and continues to support) the user facility.

Thomas Day and Frank Zurek, technicians from Hamelmann Communications, for their dedication to maintaining seamless operations amid harsh conditions, including high winds blowing in from the Southern Ocean, during the Cloud And Precipitation Experiment at kennaook (CAPE-k) in Tasmania. This site operations team’s commitment to excellence ensures high-quality data while meeting the needs of principal investigators and collaborators alike. Their support is a big reason for the deployment’s success.

Michael Ritsche, Patty Campbell, Mark Spychala, Keith Osenbaugh, Ronnie Clark, Clayton Frawley, Farrell Clark, Adam Elliott, Hunter McSpadden, Hayleigh Dunn, Kris Bennefield, Meredith Bean, Victoria Adair, Keilan Long, Seth Taylor, Caleh Kizer, Eli Carle, and Caitlyn Frawley, members of the BNF site management and operations team, for their dedication and teamwork to successfully bring the BNF online while overcoming adverse weather and other challenges with innovative problem-solving.

Josh Howie, Lexie Goldberger, Sébastien Biraud, Stephen Chan, Andrew Moyes, Ken Reichl, Dari Dexheimer, Casey Longbottom, Laura Riihimaki, Hagen Telg, Mark Kutchenreiter, Jenni Kyrouac, Matt Tuftedal, Sujan Pal, Ryan Sullivan, Zeen Zhu, Damao Zhang, Gary Hodges, Ben Sheffer, Martin Stuefer, Bill Powers, Donna Flynn, David Romps, and Rusen Öktem, BNF tower instrument mentors, for their resilience, flexibility, and ingenuity used to successfully navigate uncertainties while developing and installing systems on the BNF’s 140-foot (42.7-meter) walk-up tower in coordination with site operations.

David Swank, Brian Ermold, Aaron Stokes, Franklin Parry, Ric Cederwall, Hannah Collier, and Zach Medley, members of ARM’s data flow team, for their dedication and efficiency to ensure smooth data flow and quick resolution of issues. Their efforts result in seamless workflows and timely data delivery to end users.

Members of the winning teams represent a variety of DOE national laboratories, universities, and other U.S. institutions.

Learn more about the award winners, and see the full list of nominees.