2025 Earth System Observations & Modeling Graduate Symposium 

Dr. Randal 'Randy' Koster: Dr. Koster has worked as a research scientist at NASA/GSFC since September of 1987.  Most of his tenure at GSFC has been dedicated to understanding and quantifying the contributions of land surface processes to meteorological predictability at subseasonal to seasonal timescales – an effort involving the development of improved treatments of land surface physics for atmospheric general circulation models and the analysis of the interactions between the land and atmosphere, using these models.  He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and this last year he was awarded AGU’s Peter S. Eagleson Hydrological Sciences Award.

Dr. Susan Bates: Susan is the Coastal Science Program Manager at the Virginia Coast Reserve (VVCR) office of The Nature Conservancy. In this role, she manages the science within the Marine Habitat Restoration and Migratory and Shorebird Conservation Programs and she leads the Coastal Resilience Program. Her work involves engaging with partners and designing research to develop tools and strategies for informing coastal resilience decisions and projects, demonstrating the value of nature-based solutions for coastal resilience, guiding policy, and building community relationships.

Susan has a Ph.D. in Climate Dynamics from George Mason University, a Master of Science degree in Oceanography from Texas A&M and worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research for 10 years before joining The Nature Conservancy in January 2020. Much of her work at the Conservancy bridges the gap between research and on-the-ground/decision-making conservation work. She brings this perspective to her positions on the Atlantic Regional Panel of CLIVAR and the Advisory Board of the UN Decade Collaborative Centre for Coastal Resilience.

Dr. Nachiketa Acharya: Nachiketa Acharya is an expert in statistical and machine learning modeling for weather and climate sciences, with over 15 years of experience, specializing in sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) forecasting. He currently serves as a Senior AI Weather and Climate Scientist at Spire, where he contributes to advancing AI-driven S2S forecasting. Throughout his career, he has held key positions at Lynker, NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratories and Office of Water Prediction, the University of Colorado Boulder, Penn State University, Columbia University, the City University of New York, the National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting in India, and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and Bhubaneswar. His work spans cutting-edge research, operational forecasting, and client/stakeholder engagement. He is an active member of the Artificial Intelligence Applications to Environmental Science and Probability and Statistics Committee at the American Meteorological Society. Additionally, he plays a significant role in Regional Climate Outlook Forums organized by the WMO, where he serves as an expert and trainer in S2S forecasting and verification.

Dr. Anjuli Bamzai: Anjuli S. Bamzai has over two decades of experience in directing federal programs, merit review, strategic planning and leading R&D efforts in climate and Earth Systems Science. She has served in leadership positions on interagency programs e.g., the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. She has also served on ad hoc efforts convened by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, e.g., the Fast-track Action Committees on Climate Services, and Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Monitoring Information Systems.  As Embassy Science Fellow at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Republic of Korea, and more recently, at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt,  she has contributed to science diplomacy efforts across the globe.  

The training she received in India includes the following: Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry, M.Sc. Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India; and B.Sc. Physics (major), Mathematics and Statistics (minor) from Fergusson College, Pune, India. She taught undergraduate Physics at the American University in Cairo Egypt.

Anjuli is a proud alumna of George Mason University, having earned a Ph.D. in Earth System and Global Change from the Institute of Computational Sciences and Informatics,  George Mason University. Her thesis advisor was Professor J. Shukla. She received the Distinguished Alumna award from the  College of Sciences, George Mason University for exemplary achievement, dedication, of service to the profession or the community.  She was the 2024 President of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and is  currently a member of the AMS Council and AMS Executive Committee.