NSSL’s Harold Brooks Receives Nikolai Dotzek Award

harold-brooksNSSL’s Dr. Harold Brooks was awarded the 2015 Nikolai Dotzek Award at the 8th European Conference on Severe Storms held in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, in mid-September. This prestigious award commemorates the first director of the European Severe Storms Laboratory, who passed away in May 2010. It is the third time the award has been presented.

Dr. Nikolai Dotzek was known for his desire to increase understanding and awareness of severe storms. He was a firm supporter of collaboration within the European severe storms research community. The award in his honor was designed to recognize outstanding contributions to the science of severe storms.

Dr. Brooks was selected as the recipient of this year’s award for his pioneering work in assessing climatology and risk of severe storms, his contributions in connecting vertical wind shear in the lower troposphere to the occurrence of tornadoes, and his work on verification methods in extreme events. He has been an integral part of the staff at NSSL since 1991.

“Over the years, I’ve worked with, visited, and hosted European scientists, including attending all eight of the European Conferences on Severe Storms and writing more than ten publications with them,” Brooks says. “I have many professional friends in Europe, but Nikolai was my closest. We shared life outside of work both here in Norman and in Europe. I can think of no named award that could mean more personally in terms of who it honors.”

For more information about the award: http://www.essl.org/cms/nikolai-dotzek-award-2015/

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