The 𝗡𝗶𝗸𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗶 𝗗𝗼𝘁𝘇𝗲𝗸 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱, the most prestigious prize in the severe weather research community, is presented every second year in memory of ESSL’s founding father, Dr. Nikolai Dotzek, for an outstanding contribution to the science of severe storms.

This year, the Nikolai Dotzek Award went to Professor Yvette Richardson (Penn State University, US) for her outstanding contributions to understanding tornadogenesis and supercell dynamics and for her immeasurable impact on science through supervising students who have gone on to develop impressive research careers of their own.

Professor Richardson’s research encompasses the complete spectrum of severe convective storms. Her research integrates state-of-the-art numerical modeling with cutting-edge observational approaches to understand storm formation and evolution. Her modeling studies have systematically investigated how temporal and spatial variations in environmental parameters influence supercell strength, rotation, and longevity.

On the observational side, she has used mobile radars to capture the fine-scale structure of supercells, and working with Prof. Paul Markowski, pioneered pseudo-Lagrangian balloon-borne sensors that provide three-dimensional in-situ thermodynamic observations within supercells.

Her leadership in major field campaigns (e.g., VORTEX2) has fundamentally advanced understanding of the discriminators between tornadic and non-tornadic supercells, addressing one of the field’s most challenging forecasting problems. Beyond research, she co-authored the definitive textbook “Mesoscale Meteorology in Midlatitudes” (2010), now the standard reference for graduate education in this field worldwide.

For this accumulation of important achievements, it is ESSL’s pleasure to award Professor Richardson the 2025 Nikolai Dotzek Award.