Awards

For dedication to improving lives in Southeast Asia and Africa through development and training in the use of hydrological datasets and tools

In the category of Applied Science and Engineering, the citation reads "Dr. Sujay Kumar is internationally recognized as the lead developer for a land surface modeling and data assimilation, known as the Land Information System (LIS), which has been adopted by operational agencies around the world and has served as the software foundation for scores of past and current basic and applied sciences research projects. Agencies that employ LIS include the U.S. Air Force, NOAA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office. Dr. Kumar designed and installed advanced data assimilation modules within LIS that enable it to take in observations from multiple satellite remote sensors, including NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow On (GRACE-FO), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). He has also led or contributed to (as co-investigator) twelve applied sciences projects whose goals were to make NASA’s remote sensing data useful for practical and socially relevant applications, including water resources and agricultural management, drought and flood monitoring, famine early warning, and weather and climate prediction."

For “Global connections between El Nino and landslide impacts”

For achieving a successful SLAP airborne deployment in support of the LIAISE campaign in Spain in Summer 2021

For outstanding scientific and technical support of a new Global Hydro Intelligence initiative

For exceptional scientific and technical support to the ICESat-2 inland surface water data products

For leadership of the selected Water Resources Proposal

For outstanding leadership and support of the NASA International Water Strategy

For outstanding scientific/technical support associated with transitioning LISF Version 7.4 to operations at HQ 557th Weather Wing

For outstanding support and essential contributions to the irrigation work of GLDAS and other LIS projects

For outstanding scientific/technical support associated with transitioning LISF Version 7.4 to operations at HQ 557th Weather Wing

For outstanding scientific support on natural disaster studies

For the outstanding scientific achievement associated with the design, development, testing, and evaluation of the LISF Sub-seasonal-to-Seasonal Subsystem for the 557th Weather Wing

For the outstanding scientific achievement associated with extending the LISF's Data Assimilation Sub-system

For outstanding advances in understanding terrestrial hydrologic processes using multiple Earth observing satellites and land data assimilation modeling

For advancements in agricultural guidance

For outstanding contributions in the area of soil moisture data assimilation

For significant contributions to freshwater modeling efforts

For outstanding outreach and coordination efforts in support of the Earth Information System project