DURHAM, N.C. – Susan Lozier, Ronie-Richele Garcia-Johnson Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, has been elected president-elect of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

AGU is a professional society of atmospheric and ocean sciences, solid-Earth sciences, hydrologic sciences and space sciences, and has more than 62,000 members in 144 countries.  Its activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics.

Lozier will begin her two-year term as president-elect on Jan. 1, 2019, and then serve a two-year term as AGU president beginning in 2021.

A physical oceanographer, she is widely cited for her research on large-scale ocean circulation and its links to global climate change. She is lead investigator for the $32 million OSNAP (Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program) international research project, in which scientists have deployed moored instruments and sub-surface floats across the North Atlantic to measure the ocean’s overturning circulation and shed light on the factors that cause it to vary.

In 2016, AGU presented her its prestigious Ambassador Award for her contributions to the the geosciences, including her leadership of mentoring programs for early-career scientists, particularly women in these fields.  

Among her many other professional honors, Lozier was named an American Meteorological Society Fellow in 2008, a Duke Distinguished Professor in 2012, an AGU Fellow in 2014 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2015. She received an NSF Early Career Award in 1996, a Bass Chair for Excellence in Research and Teaching in 2000, and a Duke University Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2007. She currently serves as past-president of The Oceanography Society, and has been a member of the Duke faculty since 1992.

Two other Nicholas School faculty members were named to leadership roles at AGU.  

Wenhong Li, associate professor of climate, was chosen to serve as secretary for AGU’s Global Environmental Change section.

Ana Barros, James L. Meriam Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was named president-elect of AGU’s Hydrology section.

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