Two Veteran Researchers Named AGU Fellows

Two scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are among 60 nationwide named this year as fellows of the American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest earth-sciences society. Edward Cook, director of the observatory’s Tree Ring Lab, and Robin Bell, a leader in polar studies, received the honors, announced in the April 19 edition of the AGU newspaper EOS. The union has chosen a select group to honor each year since 1962, limiting the number to no more than 0.1 percent of the group’s membership.

Ed Cook (left) in the field.

Cook, who cofounded the Tree Ring Lab, has worked across the world, from Asia to the American Southwest and the Hudson Valley. He has played a lead role in developing atlases of past droughts in North America and Asia, using measurements from tens of thousands of trees to reconstruct histories of drought going back in some areas two millennia. Cook is the Ewing Lamont research professor at Lamont-Doherty.