Olga Tweedy recently joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling (EESM) program through an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellowship.

In her new EESM role, Tweedy will work across the three EESM program areas—Earth System Model Development (ESMD), MultiSector Dynamics (MSD), and Regional & Global Model Analysis (RGMA). She will also work with the EESM program managers in several areas, including helping to plan and manage principal investigator meetings and workshops.

A key responsibility will be working with the core management team of Artificial Intelligence for Earth System Predictability (AI4ESP)—a collaboration between DOE management and laboratories to develop a next generation capacity for Earth system predictability focused on enabling artificial intelligence across field observations, lab experiments, modeling, and analysis activities.

Tweedy is already helping to organize an AI4ESP workshop series (held virtually, October 25 to December 3, 2021). Following the workshop series, she will collaborate with program managers and AI4ESP organizers to synthesize the workshop findings.

“We will collect the state of the science from the research community on the development of next-generation observation and prediction capabilities able to exploit machine learning and present the findings in a coordinated report,” she said.

Over her one- to two-year assignment with EESM, Tweedy hopes to better understand how scientific programs are created and managed. “I take a holistic view of Earth system science—from observation to analysis and modeling, and how we can present that information appropriately for policy discussion,” she said. “This is an exciting opportunity to support the EESM program that enhances the U.S. modeling capabilities and interagency collaborations. I’ve always wanted to learn and get hands-on program coordination and management experience and, along the way, gain exposure to a wider view of science at the federal level.”

RGMA Program Manager Renu Joseph says Tweedy is an excellent fit for the EESM program management team. “In the short time she’s been here, Olga is already bringing new ideas and suggestions that will help each EESM program area better serve the needs of our PIs.”

Before joining EESM, Tweedy was a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center postdoctoral program Fellow, and before that, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University.

Tweedy holds a PhD in atmospheric science from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in marine sciences from Coastal Carolina University. She is also a current Outstanding Student Paper Award (OSPA) coordinator and a co-chair of the AGU Early-Career Committee for AGU’s Atmospheric Science Session.