Congratulations to Department of Meteorology Research Assistant, William, F. Ryan, who was named by EPA AIRNow '2010 Partner of the Year' at the EPA National Air Quality Conference held in Raleigh, North Carolina on 16 March.  Bill was named 'Partner of the Year' for sharing his time, knowledge and enthusiasm about air quality forecasting throughout the life of the AIRNow program.

Bill Ryan has been a leader in air quality forecasting in the mid-Atlantic for many years. He developed the first operational ozone forecast models for the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan areas in 1993, extending to Philadelphia in 1996. He has been an operational air quality forecaster in the mid-Atlantic, for both ozone and fine particles, since 1995. He has also provided technical analysis and advice to the State of Maryland on subjects ranging from photochemical modeling to data trend analysis in support of State Implementation Plan (SIP) development. He is a member of the Air Quality Forecasters Focus Group that provides technical feedback to the developers of the NOAA National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC).