Rutgers alumna Julia Engdahl (Oceanography graduate program) and Josh Kohut, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, pictured in RUCOOl room.
Julia Engdahl, a graduate of the Rutgers School of Graduate Studies’ Oceanography program, recently won a Professional Excellence Award during her first year as a contractor for NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, CO-OPS. Julia is also a recent graduate of the Rutgers University Center for Ocean Observing Leadership, RUCOOL.
In announcing the award, Richard Edwing, director of NOAA CO-OPS said:
“This award provides recognition for outstanding accomplishment in furthering CO-OPS’ mission through exceptional dedication or innovative approaches to their work while advancing morale among fellow employees. The Individual Award for Professional Excellence goes to Julia Engdahl, [who] is being recognized for the professional excellence she has demonstrated in her first year as a Lynker contractor with CO-OPS.
Her diverse contributions to CO-OPS and NOAA include providing quality control of water level and currents data; supporting the weekly Gain and Offset Backup Analysis, or GOBA, report; sharing her impressive coding skills; innovating product and process improvements; assisting with Software Carpentry workshops; and serving as the Executive Secretariat for NOAA AI Executive Committee and the Coordinator for the NOS AI Working Group.
Julia’s leadership and support of CO-OPS CODE team activities has been exemplary. She has eagerly shared her skills with others and led and collaborated on multiple innovative coding projects, like converting microwave water level comparison scripts to Python, and bringing creativity to the Santa Monica Digital Display Project.
One of Julia’s best known contributions to CO-OPS is her use of animated GIFs for the representation of water level and sea level trend data. Julia’s accomplishments are extensive and impressive, but even more so when considering that she was hired only 13 months ago – during the pandemic and without the benefits of in-person training, guidance, or collaboration. We are thankful to have you on board and looking forward to even more innovation.”
NOAA CO-OPS and its predecessors have gathered oceanographic data along our nation’s coasts for over 200 years to protect life, property, and the environment. Serving both the public and other government agencies, CO-OPS is the authoritative source for accurate, reliable, and timely water-level and current measurements that support safe and efficient maritime commerce, sound coastal management, and recreation. The combined efforts, knowledge, and experience of CO-OPS’s technicians, scientists, and engineers working to carry out a central mission has led to the development of a reliable center of expertise for coastal physical oceanography.
