Diana Verseghy wrote the first version of the Canadian Land Surface Scheme, CLASS, between 1987 and 1989 while working as a post-doctoral visiting fellow at the former Canadian Climate Centre in the Atmospheric Environment Service of Canada. She was subsequently hired as a full-time research scientist. From 1994 to 2001 she led the land surface node of the federally funded Climate Research Network, focused on testing and further development of CLASS, which involved collaborators from fourteen university groups. In later years she continued CLASS development work in collaboration with other ECCC staff, notably Mike Lazare, Yves Delage, Paul Bartlett and Richard Harvey. From 2012 to 2017 she was a co-investigator and science committee member in the NSERC-funded Canadian Network for Regional Climate and Weather Processes, based at UQAM. Between 2015 and 2016 she and ECCC scientist Murray Mackay successfully coupled CSLM, the Canadian Small Lake Model, with CLASS.
In addition to this model development work, Diana spearheaded the participation of CLASS in a number of national and international projects. From 1992 to 1996 she was a principal investigator and science team member on the BOREAS project (Boreal Forest Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study). From 1992 to 2004 she was a co-investigator in the international PILPS initiative (Project for Intercomparison of Land-surface Parameterization Schemes). From 1995 to 2005 she served as a member of the Canadian Regional Climate Model Steering Committee. From 2001 to 2005 she was a co-investigator in MAGS-2 (the Mackenzie GEWEX Experiment phase 2). From 2003 to 2004 she was a co-investigator in GLACE (the Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment). From 2006 to 2011 she was a co-investigator and science committee member on the CFCAS-funded IP3 project (Improved Processes and Parameterization for Prediction in Cold Climates). From 2012 to 2016 she was a co-investigator in ALMIP2 (the AMMA Land Surface Model Intercomparison Project).
Over the course of her career Diana was the lead author or a co-author of 75 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. In 2001 she was awarded the Environment Canada Citation of Excellence, and in 2015 she received the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society’s Andrew Thomson Prize in Applied Meteorology. She retired in January of 2017, but maintains contact with the CLASSIC group in an informal advisory capacity.
