Life at OSU

CEOAS’ Chelton elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Oregon State University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Dudley B. Chelton has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the organization has announced.

Chelton, an oceanographer in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, is one 120 members and 30 international members elected this year in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

“Membership in the NAS is a widely recognized sign of enduring excellence and impact in scientific research, an honor well-deserved by Dudley,” said Tuba Özkan-Haller, interim dean of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

Chelton joined the OSU faculty in 1983. His research examined the mysteries of large-scale oceanic eddies that arise from instabilities of ocean currents, probed the low-frequency variations of ocean circulation that affect climate variability and broadened the understanding of ocean influences on the overlying winds. His use of satellite imagery to observe these processes globally from space brought him international acclaim and helped to revolutionize studies of ocean-atmosphere interactions. These studies have been made possible by the highly successful collaboration between scientists and NASA engineers over the past 40 years.

Chelton’s previous honors include being named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and of the American Meteorological Society. He is a recipient of the NASA Public Service Medal, the Robert L. and Bettie P. Cody Award in Ocean Sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the AMS Henry Stommel Research Award, the joint NASA-USGS William T. Pecora medal and numerous NASA Team Awards for contributions to altimetry and scatterometry missions. 

Chelton is among a handful of OSU-affiliated faculty members to be elected to the academy. Others include former CEOAS Dean and Professor Emeritus G. Brent Dalrymple, who was elected in 1993; University Distinguished Professor Jane Lubchenco, who was elected in 1996, and CEOAS courtesy faculty member Dawn Wright, who was elected in 2021. 

The academy is made up of 2,512 active members and 517 international members. International members are nonvoting members of the Academy, with citizenship outside the United States. Approximately 190 of the academy’s members have received Nobel prizes.

~ Michelle Klampe