Dr. Elizabeth Barnes
Various Profiles
Biosketch
Dr. Elizabeth (Libby) Barnes is a Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Libby’s research has centered on climate variability, predictability, and change and the data analysis tools used to better understand the Earth system (including machine learning and causal discovery). She teaches graduate courses on statistical analysis methods, machine learning for Earth scientists, and data-driven forecasting from days-to-decades.
Libby is an American Geophysical Union (AGU) Macelwane Medal winner and became a Fellow of the AGU in 2021. She received the AGU Turco Lectureship for 2020, AMS Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award for 2020, and was awarded an NSF CAREER grant in 2018. She received the George T. Abell Outstanding Early-Career Faculty Award in 2016 and was recognized for her teaching and mentoring by being awarded an Honorable Mention for the CSU Graduate Advising and Mentorship Award in 2017 and being named the Outstanding Professor of the Year Award in 2016 and 2022 by the graduate students of the Department of Atmospheric Science. In 2014 she was the recipient of an AGU James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award.
Libby is involved in a number of research community activities, including serving on the National Academies' Board on Atmospheric Science and Climate and a funded member of the NSF AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate and Coastal Oceanography (AI2ES), she is also a member of the NCAR Earth System Predictability Across Timescales External Advisory Board, among others.
Libby joined the CSU faculty in 2013 after obtaining dual B.S. degrees (Honors) in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Minnesota, obtaining her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Washington, and spending a year as a NOAA Climate & Global Change Fellow at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.
Women's History Month 2021: A conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Barnes
Education
Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science – 2012 – University of Washington, Seattle
B.S. in Mathematics – 2007 – University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
B.S. in Physics – 2007 – University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Honors & Awards
Outstanding Professor of the Year, Department of Atmospheric Science, CSU - 2022
American Geophysical Union Macelwane Medal, AGU - 2021
Fellow of the American Geophysical Union - 2021
Faculty Excellence Award, College of Engineering, CSU - 2021
American Geophysical Union Turco Lectureship, AGU - 2020
American Meteorological Society Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award, AMS - 2020
National Science Foundation CAREER Award - 2018
CSU Graduate Advising and Mentorship Award, Honorable Mention, awarded by the CSU Graduate Student Council - 2017
George T. Abell Outstanding Early-Career Faculty Award, College of Engineering, CSU - 2016
Nominated for the IAMAS Early Career Scientist Medal by the International Commission on Dynamical Meteorology - 2016
Outstanding Professor of the Year, Department of Atmospheric Science, CSU - 2016
Identified by Nature journals to be one of the best referees of 2015
Editor’s Citation for Excellence in Refereeing – Geophysical Research Letters - 2015
American Geophysical Union James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award, Atmospheric Sciences Section of the AGU - 2014
NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration - 2012
Committees/Panel Memberships/Leadership roles
Member of the NCAR Earth System Predictability Across Timescales External Advisory Board (2024 - )
Member of the Sandia National Laboratories' Earth Science External Review Board (2023 - )
Member of the National Academies' Board on Atmospheric Science and Climate (2022 - )
National Academies's Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space (CESAS) member (2021 - )
Steering Committee Member of the CSU Data Science Research Institute (2020 - )
Member of the CESM Science Steering Committee (2020 - 2023)
Associate Editor of AGU's Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (2021 - 2022)
Associate Editor of AMS's Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems (2021 - 2022)
Co-Lead for the US CLIVAR Working Group: Emerging Data Science Tools for Climate Variability and Predictability (2019 - 2021)
Task Force Lead for the NOAA MAPP Subseasonal-to-Seasonal (S2S) Prediction Task Force, (2016 - 2020)
Advisory Panel Member for the Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling (ACOM) Laboratory National Center for Atmospheric Research (2018 - 2021)
Associate Editor of the Journal of Climate (2016 - 2021)
Member of the NSF Arctic Science Section Portfolio Review Committee (2018)
Panel member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space 2017 (2016 - 2018)
AMS Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics (AOFD) Committee (2017 - 2020)
Editorial Board Member for npj Climate and Atmospheric Science (2017 - 2020)
Member of the International Commission on Dynamical Meteorology, a Commission of the IAMAS (2014 - 2020)
Professional Society Memberships: American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society