GMAO Team Members Receive Agency Honor Awards
04.08.2021
The GMAO is proud to share the news that two of its team members, Larry Takacs and Callum Wayman, are recipients of NASA's 2021 Agency Honor Awards.
Larry Takacs was one of four Goddard winners for the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. 
This is NASA’s highest form of recognition awarded to non-Government individuals "…whose distinguished service, ability, or vision has personally contributed to NASA’s advancement of United States' interests."
Larry Takacs has provided ongoing support to NASA Earth Sciences endeavors for over 40 years, which includes joining the Global Modeling and Simulation Branch (which eventually became the GMAO). He has participated in and made major contributions to the development of uncountable versions of the General Circulation Model (GCM), used for weather prediction, data assimilation and climate research. Larry’s abilities and dedication over the years to develop a state-of-the-art model go beyond normal duties. For example, he developed a machinery for examination of model results including diagnostic, verification and cross comparison of experiments that exponentially increased the efficiency in GMAO’s working practices; the tool is presently employed across GEOS-based applications.
The GMAO’s Callum Wayman is a recipient of the Silver Group Achievement Award, as part of the NASA DEVELOP team, for the successful design and implementation of DEVELOP’s virtual software carpentry training program.
Due to the limitations of travel and onsite work over the past two years, the DEVELOP National Program Software Carpentry Team (SCT) successfully overcame significant obstacles by redesigning its approach. The virtual trainings united participants by using new teaming and communication tools. These innovative SCT efforts are an outstanding example of implementing NASA’s core value of teamwork. By conducting the workshops virtually, the program was substantially improved by being able to increase the number of participants benefiting from the training, enhance DEVELOP’s technical training capability, and provide a significant value-add to the virtual term – particularly for locations that did not previously have access to formal technical training.
The workshops reached 54 participants in the summer of 2020, 76 in the fall of 2020, 102 in the spring 2021, and 163 in the summer of 2021, indicating a strong increase in demand.
Congratulations to both Larry and Callum!
