Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, UCLA
Please use this email for calendar invites. If sharing Google docs please replace ‘atmos’ with ‘g’, for my UCLA Google account.
Also affiliated with UCLA’s Institute of Environment and Sustainability, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science & Engineering
Office: 7961 Math Sciences Building Phone: (310) 206-3734 Fax: (310) 206-5219
Mailing Address: Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 520 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1565
Undergrad Text (+Supplement): Climate Change & Climate Modeling
Research interests
Neelin’s research involves interactions between different pieces of the climate system, starting with ocean-atmosphere interaction and later spreading to some of the other interactions that must be understood as fully coupled processes. Early in his career, a grant program manager, struggling to categorize him as an atmospheric or an oceanic scientist, referred to him as “one of those damned new coupled modelers no one knows where to put”.
Tropical climate variability has been a major area of endeavor. El Nino/Southern Oscillation phenomenon, Neelin became fascinated by the Achilles heel of early tropical ocean-atmosphere theory: the complex interaction between the large-scale tropical atmosphere and moist convection. These moist dynamical processes strongly affect and are affected by the ocean surface layer. Several research areas have evolved from this, including moist teleconnections and the tropical precipitation response to global warming.
Education and Training
University of Toronto, Department of Physics, Bachelor of Science, Hon.: June, 1981
University of Toronto, Department of Physics, Master of Science: August, 1983
Princeton University, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Program, Doctorate: October, 1987,
Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT, Postdoctoral Associate: Sept. 1987–Aug. 1988
Research and Professional Experience
Distinguished Professor, Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, UC Los Angeles July 2016–present
Professor, Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, UC Los Angeles July 1995–June 2016
Chair, Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, UCLA 7/2010-7/2013
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Scientific Visitor (Guggenheim Fellowship), 1-4/2008
Professor Invité, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris 5-6/2008
Vice-Chair, Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, UCLA 1/2004-1/2008, 1/2009-6/2010
Associate Professor, Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences, UC Los Angeles July 1992–July 1995
Visiting Associate Professor, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, January 1994–May 1995 (Houghton Lectureship)
Assistant Prof., Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 9/1988–6/1992
Selected Publications
- Neelin, J. D., S. Sahany, S. N. Stechmann, and D. N. Bernstein, 2017: Global warming precipitation
accumulation increases above the current-climate cutoff scale, Proc. Nat. Acd. Sci., 114, 1258-1263. - Schiro, K. A., Ahmed, F., Giangrande, S. E. & Neelin, J. D. GoAmazon2014/5 campaign points to deep-inflow
approach to deep convection across scales. Proc. Nat. Acd. Sci., 115, 201719842 (2018). - Swain, D. L., Langenbrunner, B., Neelin, J. D. & Hall, A., Increasing climate volatility in 21st century
California. Nature Climate Change, 8, 427–433 (2018). - Martinez-Villalobos, C., & Neelin, J. D. Climate models capture key features of extreme precipitation
probabilities across regions. Environmental Research Letters, (2020). - Neelin, J. D., Martinez-Villalobos, C., Stechmann, S. N., Ahmed, F., Chen, G., Norris, J. M., Kuo, Y.-H. &
Lenderink, G. Precipitation extremes and water vapor. Current Climate Change Reports 17–33 (2022).
Synergistic activities (selected)
Deputy Editor, Science Advances (2022-present)
Chair, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Model Diagnostics Task force (2018-present)
National Ctr. for Atmos. Research, Climate & Global Dynamics Laboratory Advisory Board (2015-2021)
Textbook and materials (Climate change and climate modeling, Cambridge Univ. Press, 282 pp., 2011)
Contributing author, 5th & 2nd Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Reviewer, Third and Fourth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Awards (selected)
Charney Medal of the American Meteorological Society (2019)
Bert Bolin Global Environmental Change Award/Lecture, American Geophysical Union (2017)
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (elected 2015)
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Fellow, American Geophysical Union, , American Meteorological Society, Royal Meteorological Society
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
Professeur Invité, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris
NSF Special Creativity Award 1999-2000
Presidential Young Investigator Award 1991-1996