HAO Senior Scientist wins 2011 Mentoring Award: Dr. Boon Chye Low

HAO is proud to announce that Sr. Scientist, Boon Chye (BC) Low, won the 2011 UCAR Outstanding Accomplishment Award for Mentoring. BC joined the High Altitude Observatory in 1981. During his 30-year-long career as an NCAR scientist (and a very productive one at that), BC has helped to enhance the professional development of numerous students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior scientists at NCAR. A brilliant theoretical and mathematical physicist himself, he has not only provided his protégés scientific and technical guidance, but more distinctively, he has inspired them with his enthusiasm and his wisdom. He is, on the one hand, selfless in devoting his time and effort to providing an enriching and supportive environment for his protégés, while also treating them as equals and giving them independence and freedom in their research and development.

BC, who was very humble about receiving this award, says that he receives as much from working with students and post docs as he gives.

BC has collaborated and worked closely with many visiting scientists and junior staff in HAO as well as in other NCAR divisions. With his scientific breadth, BC has been able to provide insightful views and helpful advice to colleagues of diverse backgrounds, ranging from theorists to experimentalists; including solar physicists, atmospheric scientists and applied mathematicians. BC's mentoring is inspirational. He brings contagious enthusiasm and passion to solving physics problems!

Many of those mentored by BC have moved on to successful and diverse scientific careers. Just to name a few: Tom Bogdan, the new UCAR President (who was the previous Director of the Space Weather Prediction Center at NOAA); Ed Lu, who went on to become a NASA astronaut; Hans De Sterck, an Associate Professor in applied mathematics at Waterloo University, Canada (whose Ph.D. thesis paper won the 1999 UCAR Outstanding Accomplishment Award for a Publication). BC's outstanding mentoring efforts exemplify how NCAR, as an interdisciplinary research center, can support the university community in training the next generation of young scientists.

See HAO Profiles in Science (Boon Chye Low): Link »

See UCAR News (StaffNotes): Link »