Welcoming Back Dr. Sally McFarlane as E3SM Program Manager
Sally McFarlane, DOE BER
The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project is pleased to welcome back Dr. Sally McFarlane as Program Manager. Her appointment marks the return of a familiar and highly regarded leader whose experience spans fundamental atmospheric research, complex user facilities, and interagency coordination in Earth system science.
Dr. McFarlane is well known to the E3SM community. She previously served as E3SM’s interim program manager from May 2019 to May 2020, following the departure of former program manager Dr. Dorothy Koch. During that time, she provided steady leadership at a pivotal point in the project’s evolution, helping to sustain momentum following the successful Phase 2 proposal and review and supporting the team as it continued to execute its scientific and technical vision.
In her broader role within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, Dr. McFarlane has served as the program manager for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility since 2014. She oversees both operations and science for ARM, a DOE Office of Science user facility that provides observations to improve understanding of the processes governing interactions among aerosols, clouds, precipitation, and radiation. She also co-manages an Atmospheric Measurement Technology topic within DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
Dr. McFarlane’s portfolio includes extensive interagency engagement on observation-focused activities. She co-chairs the Monitoring, Observing, Modeling, and Prediction (MOMP) sub-team of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) and is a member of the Interagency Coordinating Committee for Airborne Geosciences Research and Applications (ICCAGRA), and the Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services (ICAMS) Committee on Observational Systems. These roles reflect her long-standing commitment to improving the observing systems that underpin weather and earth system science, and they align closely with E3SM’s mission to leverage observations to evaluate and improve model fidelity.
Dr. McFarlane joined DOE headquarters in 2012 as a program manager to co-manage the Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program. Before coming to DOE, she spent a decade at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Her research at PNNL focused on the use of remote sensing measurements and radiative transfer models to improve understanding of the radiative effects of clouds and aerosols on the atmosphere, with a particular emphasis on the vertical structure of radiative heating and its representation in cloud and earth models.
Her return to E3SM leadership comes during a period of continued growth in model capability and scientific impact. The project has benefited from strong guidance over the past several years, including from Dr. Xujing Davis, who served as E3SM program manager before transitioning in September 2025 to become SciDAC Program Manager in the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, and from Dr. Gary Geernaert, who served as interim program manager from September 2025 through February 2026. Their leadership helped maintain continuity in planning, coordination, and execution as E3SM advanced its scientific priorities and high-performance computing objectives.
With Dr. McFarlane’s deep experience in managing large, multi-laboratory efforts such as ARM, her long history of engagement with ASR and E3SM, and her perspective from both research and program management, the project is well positioned for its next phase. The E3SM Executive Committee and the entire E3SM team warmly welcome her back into the program manager role and look forward to working with her as E3SM continues to deliver high-impact simulations and science in support of DOE missions and the broader Earth system modeling community.
