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ICDS director named chair of AGU Annual Meeting committee

Posted on February 12, 2025

Editor’s Note: A version of this story was originally published via Penn State News.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Guido Cervone, Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) interim director and professor of geography, of meteorology and of atmospheric science, was recently named chair of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Meeting program committee.

As chair, Cervone, alongside the rest of the committee, will organize and coordinate their annual event to ensure it continues to serve the needs of the broader scientific community. The meeting provides opportunities for researchers to present their science at workshops, poster sessions, town halls and more. The committee will facilitate interaction among these scientists, as well as government officials, industry leaders and private citizens to schedule more than 25,000 events and presentations.

“Guido has been an important volunteer leader for AGU and a critical voice and advocate for the whole global Earth and space sciences community. We are looking forward to continuing our productive partnership with him in this exciting role,” said Kristen Averyt, AGU executive vice president, science.

Cervone said he aims to continue the long traditions of successful and impactful AGU meetings, and work with the AGU staff and section leaders to improve the delivery of scientific results.

“Being the chair of the committee is a very important service,” Cervone said. “AGU is the largest Earth and planetary science organization in the world and holds the largest conference in the world. The AGU Annual Meeting is the primary venue to present the latest and greatest science discoveries on a larger scale. I am sure that through this experience I will also learn crucial skills that will allow me to provide services to not only Penn State, but to the scientific community.”

Cervone has been involved in AGU since 2004, primarily with the Section of Natural Hazards, where he also served as president-elect and president from 2020 to 2024. He also served on the AGU Natural Hazards Committee, as chair for late-breaking sessions, and as co-chair for the Human Geosciences and Natural Hazards section within the Japanese Geophysical Union for the joint meeting between the two organizations in 2019.

His research background is in computational science and remote sensing, but is currently focusing his efforts on how to better predict extreme and rare events in the environment. He also focuses on using machine learning to quantify uncertainty or errors associated with predictions. He is a faculty associate of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Penn State, directs the GEOvista Center, and is a member of the Geoinformatics and Earth Observation Laboratory in the Department of Geography.

“Attending the meeting every year since I was a [doctoral] student, and especially as a junior faculty, deeply impacted my career,” Cervone said. “The AGU Annual Meeting gave me a space of belonging, where I presented my results, learned about the most recent advances, exchanged ideas and, perhaps most importantly, it allowed me to build a network of colleagues that shaped my career.  I hope that I will be able to help others just as much. Thinking back to when I served on the AGU Annual Meeting program committee as an assistant professor, I never would have imagined that one day I would become the chair.”

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