Two researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been elected to the rank of Fellow in the American Geophysical Union. Alex Guenther and Phil Rasch join the class of 60 scientists being honored by AGU for "exceptional scientific contributions and attained acknowledged eminence in the fields of earth and space science."

They join PNNL's Ruby Leung and Ghassem Asrar, bringing PNNL's total of AGU Fellows to four — the most of any DOE national laboratory. Guenther and Rasch were the only DOE national laboratory staff members selected for the honor this year.

AGU is a professional, scientific organization representing more than 62,000 members in 144 countries. The AGU is the largest organization in the world dedicated to advancing the earth and space sciences. No more than one-tenth of one percent of all members are selected for the rank of Fellow in any given year.

Alex Guenther

Guenther is a Laboratory Fellow at PNNL who is internationally recognized as an expert on the processes controlling chemical emissions from forests and other ecosystems and how these emissions affect air quality and regional and global climate. His research led to the development of the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature, or MEGAN, an emissions estimate tool used by most Earth system models as well as by regulatory agencies.

Guenther earned a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., and both a master's degree and doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from Washington State University in Pullman.

Phil Rasch

Rasch is a Laboratory Fellow and is PNNL's chief scientist for climate science. He is internationally known for his work in general circulation, atmospheric chemistry, and climate modeling; particularly in the role of aerosols and clouds in the atmosphere. His research has focused on the processes that describe these components of the atmosphere, the computational details that are needed to describe them in computer models, and on their impact on climate.

Rasch earned bachelor's degrees in both atmospheric science and chemistry from the University of Washington in Seattle, and a master's degree and a doctorate in meteorology from Florida State University in Tallahassee. He is also a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Guenther and Rasch will be honored with the rest of the 2015 class of Fellows at the AGU Fall meeting in San Francisco in December.