JANUS Research Group Recognizes Anthony Bernal Ayala with Energy Award

08/15/2025

JANUS Research Group (JANUS) is pleased to recognize Anthony Bernal Ayala, Ph.D. with an Energy Award for his work leading one of the three AER/JANUS teams that participated in the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded In-situ Collaborative Experiment for the Collection of Hail in the Plains (ICECHIP) field campaign in May and June 2025.

Anthony's work for this campaign included a total of 45 days away from home and driving more than 16,000 miles to collect key observations of isotopes in the boundary layer. To take these measurements, Anthony successfully designed a mobile Picarro instrumentation system, complete with water-shielding inlet, tubing, fan, Picarro instrument, multiple lithium batteries, power inverters, and computer monitor—and installed it all in a rental car already filled with people and luggage. The system Anthony designed operated successfully through 23 separate thunderstorm deployments, taking observations for hours during all of them. This accomplishment is particularly impressive given that as of April 2025, Anthony had no experience with a Picarro instrument. After training for one week with a collaborator at the University of Michigan, Anthony was ready to go by May, with highly successful results.

For his work and his dedication to the team and the project, we are pleased to recognize Anthony with this Energy Award.