Dr. Louis W. Uccellini

Dr. Louis W. Uccellini is currently the Director of the National Weather Service, National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). In his position, he is responsible for directing and planning the science, technology and operations related to NCEP's Central Operations and Environmental Modeling Center as well as seven national centers that forecast specific weather phenomena. These centers include the Tropical Prediction Center/National Hurricane Center (Miami, FL), Storm Prediction Center (Norman, OK), Space Environment Center (Boulder, CO), Ocean Prediction Center, Hydrometeorological Prediction Centers, Climate Prediction Center and Aviation Weather Center (Kansas City, MO).

Prior, Dr. Uccellini was the Director of the NWS Office of Meteorology from 1994 to 1999; Chief of the NWS Meteorological Operations Division from 1989 to 1994; and Section Head for the Mesoscale Analysis and Modeling Section in the Goddard Space Flight Center's Laboratory for Atmospheres from 1978 to 1989.

He received his Ph.D. (1977), Masters (1972) and Bachelor of Science (1971), degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Uccellini has published more than 55 journal articles and chapters in books on subjects including analysis of severe weather outbreaks, snowstorms, gravity waves, jet streaks, cyclones and the use of satellite data in analysis and modeling applications. He is the co-author of a widely acclaimed book entitled Snowstorms Along the Northeastern Coast of the United States: 1955 to 1985, which was published by the American Meteorological Society in 1990; and authored a chapter in the 1999 AMS publication The Life Cycles of Extratropical Cyclones that provides a historical review of advances in forecasting extratropical cyclones at NCEP. Also in the Fall of 2004, a new two-volume book: Northeast Snowstorms, co-authored by Dr. Uccellini, was published by the American Meteorological Society.

Dr. Uccellini has received numerous awards in recognition of his research and operational achievements including the Maryland Academy of Sciences Distinguished Young Scientist Award (1981), the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement (1985), the American Meteorological Society's prestigious Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award (1985), and the National Weather Association's Research Achievement Awards for Significant Contributions to Operational Meteorology (1996). He was elected an AMS Fellow in 1987. Additionally, he was honored with the U.S. Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Senior Executive in 2001 and the U.S. Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive Service in 2006.