Brian Rieksts is the recipient of the 2023 Andrew J. Goodpaster Award for Excellence in Research. The award is named for retired Army Gen. Andrew J. Goodpaster, IDA’s president from 1983 to 1985. Each year, the award is given to a research staff member who demonstrates research excellence, exceptional analytical achievement and intellectual leadership in support of SAC or STPI missions.

The Larry D. Welch Award honors individuals whose external publications exemplify retired U.S. Air Force general and former IDA President Larry Welch’s high standards of analytic excellence and relevance. The award recognizes the best external publication related to IDA business areas — or associated disciplines that form the building blocks of our expertise — appearing in peer-reviewed journals or other professional publications, including books and monographs. This year’s winner of the Larry D. Welch Award for Best External Publication is ‘Statistical Cluster Analysis of Global Aerosol Optical Depth for Simplified Atmospheric Modeling,’ by IDA’s Noah Plymale and Joshua Szekely and their coauthor Anna Rubinstein.

Samuel “Sam” Davis, Security Administrative Specialist at IDA’s Center for Communications Research, La Jolla (CCR-L), is the recipient of the 2023 President’s Award for Excellence. This award recognizes superior performance by staff members who contribute significantly to IDA’s success.

The 2023 W. Y. Smith Award recipients are Jackie Evans, Linda Garlet, Cary Dier, Sarah Berry and Erika Tildon. Named in honor of General William Y. Smith, who led IDA from late 1985 through late 1990, the award recognizes extraordinary individual or group contributions to IDA. The award is typically given to non-research exempt staff members who contribute mightily to our success. This year, an exception was made to acknowledge the exceptional work of the cross-divisional team composed of exempt and non-exempt staff.

The David S. C. Chu Award for Research Excellence was established in 2020 to honor a Research Associate who has made one or more outstanding analytic contributions in support of IDA’s mission. Claire Haas, from the Information Technology and Systems Division, is the winner of the 2023 David S. C. Chu Award for Excellence in Research, named in honor of the former IDA President.

Karen Ball received the 2023 Julie B. Kerr Award for Excellence in Research. The award is named in honor of a late Center for Communications Research, La Jolla researcher. The award is meant for an IDA employee who has demonstrated research excellence and exceptional analytic achievement in the IDA research community.