Contact:  Dane Konop              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                  2/4/97

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA METEOROLOGIST JAMES F. KIMPEL NAMED NATIONAL SEVERE STORMS LAB DIRECTOR

James F. Kimpel, professor of meteorology and administrator at the University Oklahoma, has been named as new director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.

The National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) works closely with NOAA's National Weather Service and the university meteorological community. NSSL conducts research to improve forecasts and warnings of tornadoes and other severe weather and was recently depicted in the movie Twister.

Kimpel received the 2-year appointment as director of the laboratory through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, which authorizes temporary assignments of skilled personnel between federal agencies, state or local governments, and institutions of higher education, among others.

"Dr. Kimpel brings to NOAA a superb blend of experience as a teacher, scientist and science administrator. He has been instrumental in organizing the close working relationship between the University of Oklahoma and NOAA through the NOAA-University of Oklahoma Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies and Oklahoma Weather Center. Early in his career, he served as a scientist in residence at NOAA's Oklahoma City forecast office. We welcome him back to the NOAA family, " said James Rasmussen, director of NOAA's Environmental Research Laboratories, which include the National Severe Storms Laboratory.

Kimpel received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1973. He has served in a series of academic administrative positions at the University of Oklahoma, including professor and director of the School of Meteorology, senior vice president and provost of the Norman campus, dean of the College of Geoscience, and as director of the Weather Center Program, an alliance of federal, state and private weather organizations.

He relieves acting director Douglas E. Forsythe and former director Robert A. Maddox, who retired Sept. 30, 1996.

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