Congratulations to Dr. Philip Rasch on being awarded the prestigious 2013 Community Earth System Model (CESM) Distinguished Achievement Award by the CESM advisory board. Rasch was honored for his significant contribution to the growth and prominence of CESM, in development for over 30 years.

CESM is an Earth system model that uses all of the components of the Earth (atmosphere, land, ocean, and cryosphere) to create a community model. The community model uses the cooperative exchange of ideas and input from scientists and researchers throughout the United States and makes the information available to use for research. These models provide state-of-the-art computer simulations of the Earth's past, present, and future climate states.

Rasch became interested in climate research with his four-month stint researching how sea-ice moves in 1975. His time on that sheet of ice kept him interested and led to a fellowship at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado. Rasch has been on the Earth-ocean-atmostphere case ever since. Rasch's career-long support of CESM grew out of those early experiences and have directed his continued leadership in CESM as he has helped develop version five of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5). He serves as a member of the Scientific Steering Committee for CESM and is  a Principal Investigator for Earth System Modeling.
 
CESM is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Administration of the CESM is maintained by the Climate and Global Dynamics Division at NCAR.