American climatologist (1966–2022)
Lisa Marie Goddard (September 23, 1966 – January 13, 2022) was an American climate scientist who was director at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). She joined the institute in 1995[1] and served as IRI's director from 2012 to 2020.[2] Goddard was also an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University.[3]
Her research focused on forecasting methodology, seasonal climate forecasting and verification, climate change projections and especially on the interpretation of climate models and available observations.[4][5] She was involved in activities of the World Climate Research Programme and acted as co-chair in CLIVAR from 2013 to 2015.[6]
Biography
Lisa Goddard graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in physics in 1988. She received a PhD in atmospheric and oceanic sciences at Princeton University in 1995 under George Philander.[1][4] She joined IRI as a postdoctoral fellow immediately following her PhD, and spent her entire career there, eventually rising to the Director of the IRI, which position she held from 2012 to 2020.[3][2]
She began her career at a time when the importance of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation to seasonal weather patterns was just beginning to be understood.[4] The focus of her research would become weather forecasting on seasonal to decadal scales. She sought to provide people with near-term information about weather hazards such as droughts, heat-waves, floods.[1] During the course of her career she collaborated with governments and non-profits in dozens of countries to provide useful short-term forecasts for agriculture, public health, emergency planning and energy production.[4]
Goddard held a number of influential positions during her career. From 2009 to 2017, she was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Board of Atmospheric Science and Climate.[4] She co-chaired World Climate Research Programme's CLIVAR project from 2013 to 2015.[4]
She married David Cooperberg and had two sons.[4] Goddard died from breast cancer in Mount Kisco, New York, on January 13, 2022, at the age of 55.[1]
Selected publications
During her career, she contributed to more than 100 research articles.[7] Many of her most prominent works were related to the use of weather models to forecast on seasonal to decadal scales, including:
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