Ron Errico Retires from GMAO
12.02.2021
The GMAO congratulates Dr. Ron Errico on his retirement from GMAO on November 30, 2021. 
Ron joined GMAO in 2002 after establishing himself as a world-renowned scientist in numerical weather prediction and data assimilation during his roughly 20 years working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), in addition to visiting positions at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Ron blazed many trails in our field, from his early work on balance and normal mode initialization, to the representation of moist processes in data assimilation and their impact on predictability, to his pioneering use of adjoint models and sensitivity analysis in numerical weather forecasting and, of course, his development and application of Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs), for which he is most well-known at GMAO. He has authored many dozens of refereed publications on these and other topics.
Under Ron’s leadership, GMAO’s OSSE system acquired the scientific integrity that has set the standard in this community, nationally and internationally. We appreciate his contributions not only from a technical perspective but also for the intellectual investment he provided. Those contributions have enabled substantial work that continues to this day and involves numerous projects and colleagues within and beyond the GMAO. Ron has accomplished all of this with impeccable precision and honesty. His relentless adherence to the principles of honest science, and his insistence that others do the same, have invariably led to improvements in our scientific studies, our system design, and our work in general. In addition, Ron has been a diligent and generous mentor for many young scientists throughout his career, giving unselfishly of his time, experience, and expertise.
Words cannot fully describe the whole scope of Ron’s contributions to GMAO’s success, but those who have worked with him over the years can fully appreciate all that Ron has done to put us where we are today.
With heartfelt thanks, we wish Ron and his family all the best, with many happy and productive years ahead!
