Meteorologist Gilchrist Wins NOAA Administrator’s Award
National Weather Service Glasgow’s Patrick Gilchrist will receive a prestigious award along with eight other individuals who traveled to Australia for six-week assignments in 2019. The honor is an award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is granted by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere who serves concurrently as the NOAA administrator. The award, which may go to an individual or a group, is presented in recognition of significant contributions to NOAA programs. The award is presented to civilian employees of NOAA as a plaque and as a medal set to members of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps. Individual recipients of the award receive a monetary award of $5,000. Recipients of group awards split the monetary award evenly. Administrator’s Award recipients are formally recognized at an award ceremony held annually.
Gilchrist, who is currently the warning coordination meteorologist and incident meteorologist at NWS Glasgow, received the award, “for exceptional fire weather support to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology during the historic and catastrophic 2019-2020 wildfire season.”
The Premier of New South Wales selected Gilchrist to receive a Bushfire Emergency Citation for his contributions. An email announcing the award states: “The 2019-2020 bushfires were the worst in the living memory of the state of New South Wales. The catastrophic conditions impacted life, communities, property and the environment on an unprecedented scale. The dedication, selfless actions and sacrifice with which so many responded will not be forgotten.”
NWSG meteorologist in charge Tanja Fransen told the Northern Plains Independent
that the award is a high honor.
“It’s a big deal,” said Fransen. She said NOAA flew her and husband Mike Fransen to the nation’s capitol when she received her award in 2011 but said that the awards ceremony will be held virtually Oct. 29 at noon (eastern time) this year due to the pandemic. To register for the event, visit register. gotowebinar.com/register/ 2994847982557258256.
