colonel david e bacot 90 colonel david e bacot '90 commander of the air force reserve officer training corp detachment 330 at the university of maryland was awarded the geosciences distinguished alumni award col bacots career path and the corpus of his accomplishments culminating in his most recent assignment to ready the next generation of air force officers at the university of maryland air force rotc are an inspiration said award presenter dr don conlee instructional professor in the department of atmospheric sciences at texas a&m he remains a model of what the world knows of those from texas a&m – a noble gentleman and leader for the state and the nation col bacot enlisted in the air force in 1984 graduated from the air force rotc program at texas a&m university in 1990 and earned his bs in meteorology from texas a&m in 1990 in kuwait in the early 1990s david supported reconnaissance and fighter aircraft operations delivering highly accurate timely and relevant weather support often in austere environments with limited data and communications capabilities he developed technology that evolved and optimized the calculation of weather impacts in 1999 he earned a masters in meteorology from the air force institute of technology today col bacot chairs the department of aerospace studies and directs and administers an officer training program to provide the united states air force with high-quality officers and leaders of character he has sought to ensure that every young person walking through the doors of the armory has an opportunity to become the leader of character that the air force and our nation need wrote one of col bacots nominators he is a command meteorologist with diverse assignments supporting defense strategic space policy fighter and bomber operations tactical and operational command and control centers us army aviation and maneuver and global weather operations dr elizabeth satterfield 10 (phd) dr elizabeth satterfield a meteorologist at the us naval research laboratory (nrl) in monterey california received the 2019 geosciences young alumni award i am so proud to honor someone that is held in such high regard and so early in her career said award presenter dr jerry north atmospheric sciences research professor and university distinguished professor emeritus satterfield earned her phd in atmospheric sciences from texas a&m in 2010 and then joined the nrl marine meteorology division in july 2010 as a postdoctoral national research council research associate she became a meteorologist at nrl in october 2012 satterfield actively contributes to the us and international meteorology and atmospheric sciences communities through ams editorships ams committees and organizing conferences and symposiums she served as the co-chair of 25th conference on probability and statistics for the 98th ams annual meeting in 2019 and she is now the lead organizer for the 26th conference on probability & statistics to be held at the 2020 ams annual meeting in boston for the past 18 months dr satterfield has been one of the key scientists to advocate to office of naval research and nrl leadership for a nrl directorate-wide data assimilation initiative dr satterfields tireless support optimism and thoughtful insight helped bring this effort to an officially supported initiative wrote one of her award nominators elizabeth left a lasting legacy in the department of atmospheric sciences by starting the departmental graduate seminar series north said and she is now in a position to make an impact that will catapult the next generations of atmospheric scientists to the forefront of thought leadership innovation and insight the geosciences awards program began in 1978 with the creation of the michel t halbouty medal the awards program was expanded in 2017 to celebrate the outstanding alumni and friends of texas a&m and the college of geosciences by awarding the michel t halbouty medal the distinguished alumni award the young alumni award and the innovator award for more details on the colleges awards program read about our awards and recognitions view and download photos from the awards gala: txag/geosawards2019 by leslie lee 09