Keith Dixon

Keith Dixon is a senior research meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) located in Princeton, New Jersey. His expertise lies in the use of state-of-the-art computer models to simulate the Earth's global climate - past, present, and future. During his more than twenty years at GFDL, Keith's research has focused on using complex computer models to study climate change and variability, often with an emphasis on the ocean's role on decadal to centennial time scales. He has participated in national and international climate change assessment projects, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2005, in recognition of his IPCC-related contributions toward "establishing NOAA as a leading source of model-based scientific information about past and future climate", Keith received both an individual NOAA Research Employee of the Year Award and his second U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) Silver Medal as a member of GFDL's IPCC modeling team. In 1993, Keith and two colleagues received the DoC Silver Medal for creating the GFDL Modular Ocean Model - a computer model used by researchers worldwide.In addition to publishing in the scientific literature, Keith regularly participates in educational outreach activities, giving presentations on the science of climate change, collaborating with museums, and helping develop graphics, animations and text that have appeared in numerous national and international media outlets. He has also delivered briefings on Capitol Hill. His work was recognized in late 2008, when Keith was named by NOAA's Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research as the first winner of the Dr. Daniel L. Albritton Outstanding Science Communicator Award for achievement in communicating science and research to non-scientific audiences. Before joining GFDL in 1983, Keith, a life-long resident of New Jersey, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in meteorology from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Early in his professional career he also worked as a radio broadcast meteorologist in the northeastern US and taught at Rutgers University.