CCS Director of Climate & Environmental Hazards program and RSMAS Professor Ben Kirtman is named 2019 fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) for his outstanding contributions to weather, water, and climate. He will be recognized during the AMS Annual Meeting on January 9-11, 2019, in Phoenix Arizona.
Kirtman, who has been at the UM Rosenstiel School for over 10 years, is a professor of Atmospheric Sciences and director of the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS).
"This long overdue recognition for Ben reflects his status in our professional society and brings prestige to him, our School and our University," said Dean of the UM Rosenstiel School Roni Avissar.
Kirtman is a climate modeler who uses complex Earth system models to investigate the predictability of the climate system on time scales from days to decades and to study the influence of tropical variability on mid-latitude predictability. His research is wide-ranging and designed to understand and quantify the limits of climate predictability from days to decades, including understanding how the climate will change in response to changes in man-made and natural forcing.
The author of more than 120 peer-reviewed publications, Kirtman was also a coordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report and is a member of several national and international scientific panels and working groups.
Kirtman joins UM Rosenstiel School professors and current AMS fellows Brian Soden, Amy Clement, Lynn "Nick" Shay, Roni Avissar, and Bruce Albrecht.