ICEM2019 Day 1 (Tuesday) Plenary Talk:
Weather and climate as components of energy planning, risk analysis and decision-making

Gerald (Gary) Geernaert is Director, Climate and Environmental Sciences Division, in the US Department of Energy (DOE), in Washington DC. He oversees and directs basic scientific research at DOE National Laboratories and Universities, involving atmospheric, climate, and environmental sciences. In addition, he is the federal official responsible for two DOE scientific user facilities, i.e., the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) research facility and the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL).

Besides his DOE duties, Geernaert serves as Vice-Chair and/or as DOE principal to four science interagency subcommittees under the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), that in turn is part of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Geernaert earned a B.S. degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of California, Davis; and he received a PhD degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington.

Before joining DOE in 2010, Dr. Geernaert spent 8 years as Director, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); prior to LANL, he spent 8 years as Director, Atmospheric Environment Department, Danish National Environmental Research Institute. As a practicing scientist, he conducted research at the US Naval Research Laboratory, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Danish National Environmental Research Institute, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has written and published 4 technical books and over 100 journal articles and reports throughout his career; and he is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.