Recognizing Excellence: ARM Honors Staff Contributions

Published: 30 July 2026

3 individuals and 4 teams honored with 2026 ARM Service Awards

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility presented its eighth annual ARM Service Awards on July 21, 2026. Outgoing ARM Director Jim Mather announced the honors, acknowledging staff for their outstanding service and invaluable contributions to ARM and its users as part of the virtual 2026 Joint ARM User Facility/Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Principal Investigators Meeting.

“The past year, for which these awards were presented, began with a lengthy period of uncertainty followed by a high level of activity,” says Mather. “The whole ARM community stayed focused throughout this entire period and achieved remarkable things. The persistent dedication by the ARM community to the ARM mission is exemplified by this year’s award winners.”

The three individual awardees and members of the four winning teams will receive certificates, which include signatures from ARM and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) leadership, and challenge coins.

In April and May 2026, ARM leadership sought nominations from staff and the broader scientific user community, resulting in 54 submissions for 26 individuals and 10 teams. After thorough review, ARM’s Infrastructure Management Board selected the honorees.

The 2026 award winners are:

Individual Awards

Katie Dorsey, a communications team editor and writer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Washington state, for her efforts in writing stories that are accurate, interesting, and highlight many different aspects of ARM’s work. Dorsey takes the time to connect with the right subject matter experts, thoughtfully follows up throughout the reporting process, and carefully verifies details to ensure accuracy. Her work on ARM’s Atmospheric Observer newsletter makes for high-quality and engaging reading that helps communicate ARM’s scientific impact to the broader research community.

Joe O’Brien, ARM’s data quality (DQ) manager at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, for his willingness to take on new roles and responsibilities within ARM. In addition to stepping into the DQ manager role and leading an April 2026 DQ Office hackathon, O’Brien became one of ARM’s workforce development coordinators and helped organize the 2026 ARM Big Open Data Science Summer School in Oklahoma. He also leads the ARM Bankhead National Forest (BNF) monthly roundtable, enhancing the visibility and effectiveness of ARM activities happening at the BNF atmospheric observatory in Alabama.

Tercio Silva, an ARM technician with Fundação Gaspar Frutuoso in Portugal, for the exceptional technical expertise and collaborative approach he brings to ARM. Silva has been critical to the smooth operation of ARM’s Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) atmospheric observatory and to multiple ARM Mobile Facility deployments, including the current Desert-Urban SysTem IntegratEd AtmospherIc Monsoon (DUSTIEAIM) field campaign in  Phoenix, Arizona. He also was integral in recommissioning the ENA X-Band Scanning ARM Precipitation Radar by partnering with remote instrument mentors and serving as the onsite technical expert throughout the effort.

Team Awards

Michael Giansiracusa, David Rose-Franklin, and Chris Vernon, members of ARM’s development operations team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, for transforming how software and web applications are developed, deployed, and maintained at the ARM Data Center. Through their leadership in establishing scalable, secure infrastructure and providing exceptional support to developers, they have improved application development across ARM. Their efforts in migrating the ARM Data Center’s entire application stack to Kubernetes clusters represent a landmark achievement that has improved the reliability, observability, and long-term sustainability of ARM’s software ecosystem.

Corey Godine, Randy Peppler, David Rose-Franklin, James Schneider, and Alyssa Sockol, members of ARM’s DQ Office team from the University of Oklahoma and ORNL, for their exceptional leadership and resilience during a period of significant organizational change. Throughout a series of recent personnel transitions, they maintained the high standard of ARM’s DQ operations while successfully onboarding new team members. Their efforts to modernize DQ Office tools, strengthen workflow reliability, and broaden staff knowledge of processes have strengthened the foundation of ARM’s DQ operations.

Min “Mindy” Deng, Alyssa Matthews, Marqi Rocque, and Eddie Schuman, ARM radar data mentors from Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and PNNL, for their collaboration and technical innovation in advancing ARM’s radar data processing capabilities. Their development and implementation of calibrated, quality-controlled b-level processing workflows for many of ARM’s radar systems have established more consistent, scalable methods that improve data quality and operational efficiency. These efforts have culminated in the first-time release of numerous b-level radar data sets, representing a major advancement in ARM’s data capabilities and providing lasting value to the scientific user community.

Dennis De Smet, Dari Dexheimer, Casey Longbottom, Brent Peterson, Carlos Ruiz, Steven Storch, Matt Tezak, and Rip Winckel, members of ARM’s tethered balloon system (TBS) team from Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, for an extraordinary year of operational achievement and scientific innovation. Over the past year, the team has completed hundreds of flights across multiple ARM sites and helped conduct the first combined TBS and ArcticShark uncrewed aerial system flights at ARM’s BNF observatory. Their Federal Aviation Administration-recognized safety practices and implementation of a helium reclamation system have enhanced both the scientific impact and long-term sustainability of ARM’s TBS program.

See the full list of ARM Service Award nominees.