Alexander Barth

The 2010 Outstanding Young Scientist Award is awarded to Alexander Barth for his achievements in the field of data assimilation in oceanography, to which he has contributed original ideas on the development of assimilation strategies for regional ocean models.

Alexander Barth major contribution is given by new ideas in data assimilation. In particular, he developed an interesting frame work to test different assimilation strategies for regional models. After his brilliant thesis, Alexander Barth implemented his original assimilation techniques for operational purposes. He significantly contributed to the project “Global Ocean Predication with the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM)” for which the consortium got the NOPP award for Excellence in Partnering. His scientific ideas have lead to an impressive number of presentations at science meetings and publications in peer reviewed journals. Dr. Barth always has a very open minded and constructive approach, never hesitating to share his findings and developments, including the software he develops (he is even a regular contributor to Octave, the Matlab clone). Several interactive websites are based on his developments and still in use.