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Dr. Louis Uccellini
Director of the National Weather Service's Center for Environmental Prediction

Dr. Louis 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 National Hurricane Center (Miami, FL), Storm Prediction Center (Norman, OK), Space Environment Center (Boulder, CO), Marine Prediction Center, Hydrometeorological Prediction Centers, Climate Prediction Center and Aviation Weather Center (Camp Springs, MD).

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 was once a 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. He has published more than 50 journal articles and chapters in books on subjects ranging from mesoscale analysis of gravity waves, jet streaks and cyclones to the use of satellite data in analysis and modeling applications. He is also the co-author on 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 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. In his own right, Dr. Uccellini has been deemed the "winter storm expert" at the National Weather Service.

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 Meiseinger Award (1985), and the National Weather Association's Research Achievement Awards for Significant Contributions to Operational Meteorology (1996). He was elected as a Fellow to the AMS in 1987.