Céline Bonfils, a climate scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is a 2012 recipient of an Office of Science Early Career Research Program Award. Bonfils was selected by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research for the project “Detection and Attribution of Regional Climate Change with a Focus on the Precursors of Droughts.”

Principal Investigators who are within 10 years of receiving their doctorate and are permanent employees of a Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory or university are eligible for this award. The award provides funding over five years and is intended to provide support to outstanding researchers during the critical early career years. This year, the Office of Science chose 68 scientists for this honor.

Bonfils plans to use the funding to examine the naturally driven and externally forced components of known major large-scale subtropical drought precursors, such as specific changes in atmospheric circulation and ocean surface temperatures. This funding will extend Bonfils' previous work funded by the DOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.