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Alum, Jon Hobbs, receives Lew Allen Award

Jonathan HobbsJon Hobbs, Department of Statistics alum, is the recipient of this year's Lew Allen Award at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Hobbs completed a co-major PhD in statistics and meteorology from Iowa State in 2013. He started at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2014 as a postdoctoral researcher and advanced to his current position of data scientist in 2016. 

The Lew Allen Award is the most prestigious early career award that JPL offers. It comes with a monetary prize, and a research stipend to be used by the awardee to conduct research of his/her choice. Dr. Hobbs was selected for outstanding accomplishments in research and development of uncertainty quantification approaches for atmospheric retrievals.

The Lew Allen Award recognizes and encourages significant individual accomplishments or leadership in scientific research or technological innovation by JPL employees during the early years of their professional careers. 

Nominations are made by cognizant "Directors for". Recommendations are made by an advisory committee, including the Chief Scientist, Chief Technologist, and Director for Engineering and Science.  The JPL Director will make the final selections.

Nominations must meet the following criteria:

  • Awardees shall be within ten years of having received their highest academic degree and shall have accomplished one of the following:
  • Achieved a major scientific discovery or technological innovation that had a significant impact on the field.
  • Established a significant new area of research at JPL.
  • Demonstrated unique talent as a leader in their field.

Congratulations to Jon on this momentous achievement.