Li Awarded Verner E. Suomi Technology Medal

Distinguished University Professor Zhanqing Li is to receive the Verner E. Suomi Technology Medal, one of the most prestigious awards bestowed by the American Meteorological Society. The award recognizes Li “for fundamental contributions in the application of remote sensing to quantifying Earth’s energy budget, including the impacts of aerosols and their interactions with clouds”.

Named after Verner Suomi, widely regarded as a “founding father” of satellite meteorology, the medal is presented annually to one individual in recognition of highly significant technological achievement in the atmospheric or related oceanic and hydrologic sciences to help advance weather forecasting, climate prediction, or improve air quality and the well-being of the earth system. Past recipients of the award include Michael King for the Earth Observation System and Dennis Baldocchi for global surface flux networks and carbon cycling.

“It’s a great honor to have, especially in association with such renowned colleagues who have been my role models.  Yet, it’s a recognition not only of my work but also of many others who have been working and collaborating with me over the years, especially my students and postdocs” said Li.

Li, professor at University of Maryland’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science and Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, has a broad scope of research interests and pursued them with a wide range of observation tools and modeling. He has developed a suite of satellite techniques and products concerning earth’s radiation budget, aerosols, cloud, precipitation, gaseous and particulate pollutants, biomass burning, and used them to understand their interactions and impacts on climate, air quality and public health. Li has also led major field campaigns in East Asia that provided new data to cope with the complex problems of aerosol-cloud-climate interactions and how air pollution affects weather and climate. More recently, he has used advanced machine learning models to create detailed air-pollution maps around the world that track both daily variation and long-term trends in fine particles, black carbon, ozone and other pollutants.

The Verner E. Suomi Technology Medal is among the highest accolades across multiple fields of earth and environmental sciences, underscoring Li’s lasting impact on the field and his commitment to advancing knowledge that benefits both science and society.