Short Descriptions (for longer ones, see About Us)
Funding/Sponsors/Management
By the Numbers (staffing, expenditures)
NCAR's Supercomputers
Our Member Universities
Our History
Honors and Awards
Locations
NCAR's Mesa Lab
How to Pronounce EN-car (or YOU-car)
Contacts
NCAR |
UCAR |
UCP |
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The National Center for Atmospheric Research conducts collaborative research in atmospheric and Earth system science and provides a broad array of tools and technologies to the scientific community, including:
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The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research is a nonprofit consortium of universities that grant Ph.D.s in fields related to atmospheric science. UCAR's primary activity is managing the National Center for Atmospheric Research. UCAR also provides services to support, enhance, and extend the capabilities of the universities through its community programs and by advocating for strong federal science budgets on behalf of the geosciences community. |
Interim UCP Director: UCAR Community Programs bring geoscience communities together to address large-scale, integrated research and education challenges. Activities include:
Until May 2009, UCP was known as the UCAR Office of Programs (UOP) |
There are many atmospheric research organizations in Boulder. To avoid confusion:
Staff as of October 2012 |
Total(includes administration) |
NCAR |
UCAR Community
|
|
All Staff |
~1,498 ~247 in UCAR administration and related services ~1,345 in Colorado ~153 out of state |
~967 |
~284 |
| Scientists (Ph.D.s, including tenure-track and project scientists) |
~256
|
~225 | ~31 |
| Postdoctoral fellows (Ph.D.s, including advanced study & postgraduate projects) | ~86 | ~52 | ~34 |
| Associate scientists (M.A., M.S., or Ph.D.) | ~134 | ~114 | ~20 |
| Engineers and software engineers |
~219
|
~174 | ~39 |
Expenditures |
Total |
NCAR |
UCAR Community
|
| Fiscal Year 2011 (October 2010–September 2011) |
~ $268 million | ~ 215 million | ~ $49 million |
NCAR is a world leader in supercomputing for the geosciences, providing services to NCAR researchers, UCAR member universities in North America, and affiliates worldwide.
The UCAR consortium consists of
UCAR began as a consortium of research institutions with doctoral programs in the atmospheric and related sciences that first met in 1959. In 1960, after UCAR had been incorporated and Walter Orr Roberts selected as its first president, the UCAR Board of Trustees unanimously approved Boulder as the site for NCAR and gave Roberts a second title, inaugural director of NCAR. NCAR's first office opened in Boulder in June 1960.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. Sharing the IPCC recognition were scores of NCAR scientists who have served as authors or reviewers for the four assessment reports issued by the IPCC since 1990. Several NCAR scientists have played IPCC leadership roles, and UCAR technical staff have provided considerable administrative support. Research using the NCAR-based Community Climate System Model was cited heavily in the IPCC's 2007 report. 2007 Nobel Peace Prize news release >
Numerous awards to NCAR and UCAR researchers for individual achievement have come from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Eleven presidents of the AMS have been drawn from our staff, 17 have been elected fellows of the AAAS, 21 are fellows of the AGU, and over 50 have been made fellows of the AMS.
NCAR and UCAR are headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, with most activity taking place on four campuses:
- NCAR Mesa Laboratory and UCAR Fleischmann Building (southwest Boulder)
- Center Green Campus (northeast Boulder)
- Foothills Laboratory and Anthes Building (northeast Boulder)
- Research Aviation Facility (Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport; Broomfield, Colorado)
Additional facilities in Wyoming and Hawaii:
- The NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) - Cheyenne, Wyoming
- The NWSC is operated by NCAR's Computational and Information Systems Laboratory.
- Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO) - near Hilo, Hawaii
- The MLSO is operated by NCAR's High Altitude Observatory
Our collaborations connect us to universities, labs, and private industry across the country and around the world.
I.M. Pei was hired as architect and ground was broken on NCAR's Mesa Laboratory on June 9, 1964. NCAR's primary sponsor, the National Science Foundation, provided construction funds for the lab, which was completed in 1966. This Boulder landmark sits atop a 600-foot mesa above the city, against the dramatic Flatirons formation in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Pei based his design on an adaptation of the centuries-old Indian cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado.
The Mesa Lab's Visitor Center is open to the public daily. To learn more about our other campuses, see Locations, below.
- There are two buildings on the NCAR mesa
- Mesa Laboratory
- Fleischmann Building
- Number of staff who work on site
- 375 staff and visitors (total staff ~1,400)
- Facilities on site are constructed of concrete, stone, and glass
- The Mesa Lab is federal property
- The National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor, owns the Mesa Lab and surrounding land
- The site is maintained by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
- All City of Boulder agencies have jurisdiction to enforce local laws and ordinances on the property, including fire, police, and Open Space and Mountain Parks.
The architecture of NCAR's Mesa Lab › (Spark: NCAR & UCAR Science Education)
Design and major components › (Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, architects)
Since the founding of our organization, these two acronyms have been pronounced as words rather than individual letters:
Because they're pronounced as words, both are generally written without "the" before the acronym.
Main Telephone Number(303) 497-1000 CorrespondenceP.O. Box 3000 Express Shipping & Deliveries3090 Center Green Drive |
Staff Directory |
Updated: October 2012
