UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 2, Page 1
September 8, 1994
Marine scientist given presidential recognition

     Xiao-Hai Yan, associate professor of applied ocean science in the
College of Marine Studies, has received a prestigious 1994
Presidential Faculty Fellow (PFF) Award.
     Through these awards, the president of the United States
recognizes, early in their academic careers, the scholarship and
leadership of some of the nation's most outstanding science and
engineering faculty. After a review process conducted by the National
Science Foundation, 15 scientists and 15 engineers are selected
annually by the White House.
     "The PFF award is one of the highest honors a faculty member can
receive," Carolyn A. Thoroughgood, dean of the college, said, noting
that Yan is the sole representative of the geosciences among this
year's recipients. "It recognizes current excellence in both teaching
and research as well as promise for the future. We are extremely proud
of all Dr. Yan has accomplished so far in his career at Delaware and
look forward to his future contributions to marine science."
     In his letter nominating Yan for the award, University interim
provost Richard B. Murray cited Yan's combined expertise in both
physical oceanography and satellite remote-sensing technology as the
key to his development of an innovative research program with
important implications for the study of the ocean's role in global
climate.
     "Prof. Yan has a powerful intellect, a great deal of drive, and a
high degree of curiosity-all traits required for an exceptional
investigator and educator," Murray said. "[His] scholarly activities
are of the highest caliber."
     Two areas of Yan's research, in particular, have received
widespread acclaim. He was the first to show how data from the ocean's
surface gathered by satellite could be used to study processes beneath
the surface. In the past, oceanographers have used satellites to study
ocean phenomena such as surface temperature and wave height. However,
these tools were limited by the fact that the infrared, radar, and
microwave energy they use to "remotely sense" ocean conditions, do not
penetrate the water's surface.
     Yan has devised computer models that use the available surface
data to determine such subsurface parameters as the depth of the
ocean's mixed layer, the upper layer of water that is relatively
uniform in temperature and composition due to mixing by surface winds.
Mixed-layer depth is an important piece of information for many
scientists, ranging from marine biologists studying the growth of
microscopic algae to climatologists working on computer models of the
global climate system.
     The second area in which Yan has received considerable attention
is his work tracking the temperature and dynamics of the western
Pacific warm pool, a large body of unusually warm water believed to be
the spawning ground of the climate disturbance known as El Nino. A
remote sensing study of the area conducted by Yan and his colleagues
in 1992 was the first to confirm from space a definitive link between
ocean surface temperature and a global climate trend.
     The study attracted the attention of the national and
international media as well as the scientific community, and Yan's
work subsequently appeared in The New York Times; Science, Time and
National Geographic magazines; and on CNN, BBC and ABC news programs.
News agencies around the world picked up the story, and Yan has
received more than 100 requests from textbooks, exhibitions,
encyclopedias and educational and scientific publications to use his
research results.
     "My accomplishments so far," Yan said, "could not have been
achieved without the help of my hard-working graduate students and
colleagues here at CMS. I believe that with the support provided by
this award and by the University,  we should be able to greatly
improve our current knowledge of the large-scale, upper-ocean
processes, air-sea interaction, El Nino, and global climate change and
strengthen our nation's leadership in satellite remote sensing of the
ocean."
     The PFF award carries a grant from the National Science
Foundation (NSF) of $100,000 per year for five years, enabling the
recipients to undertake self-designed, innovative research and
teaching projects.
     Yan plans to focus much of his award on furthering his research
on the western Pacific warm pool. Specifically, he would like to
integrate all available types of satellite data to look for more
precursors to El Nino and to predict future variability in the warm
pool. Many of the effects of El Nino have been well documented,
including devastating shifts in rainfall patterns across the globe and
declines in fish populations resulting from temperature changes in the
eastern Pacific, but the origins of the climate disturbance are still
poorly understood.
     Among his recent discoveries, Yan has found that the direction of
the rotation of the warm pool's center changes shortly before the
onset of a new El Nino event.
     A native of Shanghai, China, Yan first came to the United States
in 1985 to pursue graduate work at the State University of New York at
Stony Brook, where he received his doctoral degree. He conducted a
year of postdoctoral work at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
in La Jolla, California, before joining the faculty of the University
of Delaware in 1990 as an assistant professor and associate director
of the Center for Remote Sensing at the College of Marine Studies.
     In three years, Yan was promoted to associate professor with
tenure, a milestone that normally takes about six years to achieve. He
is the author of 62 scientific journal articles, including 43 since
his arrival at Delaware.
     In addition to his PFF award, he has garnered more than $1.3
million dollars in external research support from agencies such as
NSF, the Office of Naval Research, NASA, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration and the National Sea Grant College Program.
     Yan has advised 10 graduate students and eight undergraduate
international exchange students at the University of Delaware. He
teaches several courses, including "Principles of Applied Ocean
Science" and "Satellite Oceanography," and organizes a weekly seminar
series on remote sensing during the fall semester.
     Yan has received a number of other honors in recent years,
including an invitation to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science and Transportation on the subject of global climate
change and the oceans in 1992.
     In 1993, he was invited to give a keynote address on marine
remote-sensing education at a conference on ocean remote sensing
hosted jointly by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Meteorological
Organization, and he was recently awarded an honorary professorship by
the First Institute of Oceanography in China.
     He is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American
Meteorological Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, the Oceanography Society and the Society of Space Science.
     Yan lives in Hockessin with his wife, 13-year-old son and 2-year-
old daughter.
                                                          -Beth Chajes