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Dr. Kelvin K. Droegemeier
Meteorology
B.S., University of Oklahoma, 1980
M.S, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1982
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1985 |
Kelvin K. Droegemeier was born in Ellsworth, Kansas and earned his undergraduate and
graduate degrees, respectively, from the University of Oklahoma and University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. He joined the University of Oklahoma faculty in 1985 and presently is Associate
Vice President for Research, Regents' Professor of Meteorology, Weathernews Chair in Applied
Meteorology, and Roger and Sherry Teigen Presidential Professor.
In 1989, Droegemeier co-founded the NSF Science and Technology Center for the Analysis and
Prediction of Storms and directed it from 1994-2006. He now is director emeritus. In 2003, he
co-founded and presently serves as deputy director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for
Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere. He also directs the Sasaki Institute, which is a
non-profit organization at the University of Oklahoma that fosters the development and application
of knowledge, policy, and advanced technology for the mutual benefit of the government, academic
and private sectors.
Droegemeier's research involves the dynamics and predictability of severe thunderstorms and
tornadoes. He helped pioneer the science of storm-scale numerical weather forecasting, leading the
early development of the world's first atmospheric computer model capable of assimilating Doppler
radar and other data for explicitly predicting high-impact local weather such as individual
thunderstorms. In 1997, he received the Discover Magazine Award for Technology Innovation and his
NSF center was awarded the Computerworld-Smithsonian Award that same year. In 2000, Droegemeier
received the NSF Pioneer Award. Droegemeier has authored over 60 refereed journal articles and
book chapters and more than 200 conference publications.
High performance computing has played a key role in Droegemeier's career as an educator and
scientist, and during the past decade he helped establish two supercomputing centers at the
University of Oklahoma and served on NSF's Blue Ribbon Panel on Cyberinfrastructure. He now leads an
NSF Information Technology Research grant that is developing web service architectures to enable
researchers, students, and atmospheric tools to interact dynamically with the weather as it
evolves.
Droegemeier also is heavily involved in creating research alliances among academia, government
and industry, having led a partnership with American Airlines that in 2000 resulted in him starting
a private weather technology company. He initiated and led the Collaborative Radar Acquisition
Field Test (CRAFT), a national project directed toward developing strategies for the real time
delivery of NEXRAD Doppler weather radar data via the Internet. This award-winning effort
transformed the manner in which the National Weather Service provides time-critical radar data
to industry, resulting in entirely new product lines and services for end users. As Chairman of
Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry's Weather and Climate Team, Droegemeier helped develop a strategy for
economic development and is working at both local and national levels to grow the private weather
enterprise.
Droegemeier has served as a consultant to Honeywell Corporation, American Airlines, and the
National Transportation Safety Board. A Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, he Chairs
the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and is a former
Director of the Norman, Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce. In 2004, he was elected a Councilor in the
American Meteorological Society.
Droegemeier was appointed to the National Science Board in 2004. He chairs the Committee on
Programs and Plans and the Task Force on Cost Sharing.
August 2008
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