Daniel J. Vimont
Ned P. Smith Distinguished Chair of Climatology
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department
University of Wisconsin-Madison
I have a broad set of research interests focused on understanding mechanisms of climate variability and climate change, scale interactions in weather and climate, and global and regional impacts of climate change. In support of these research interests I use observational analyses, designed experiments using models of varying complexity, simple and advanced statistical techniques, and theoretical analyses. My work on climate impacts is deeply interdisciplinary and emphasizes conversational and co-evolutionary models of group interactions.
In addition to my position as Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, I serve as the faculty co-chair for the Environmental Sciences degree program.
Current Graduate Students and Postdocs
Mo Abbasian
Credentials: PhD
Position title: Research Associate
Email:
abbasian
Hydrological Modeling of Flood Characteristics with Prof. Dan Wright (Advisor)
Sagar Rathod
Credentials: PhD
Position title: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Email:
srathod4
Aerosol / Cloud / Radiation Interactions and their Impacts to Ocean / Atmosphere Variability
Ally Vizcarra
Position title: Graduate Student
Email:
anvizcarra
ENSO Variability and Prediction
Jack Zweifel
Position title: Graduate Student
Email:
jazweifel
Aerosol Impacts on North Atlantic and Pacific Climate
Current Undergraduate Students
Former Students and Postdocs
Hannah Barnes (Undergraduate Research advisor, 2009-2010): Characterizing biases in NHC tropical cyclone forecasts.
C.J. Begalke (M.S. with David Lorenz): Variability in the mid-latitude zonal-mean jet
Current Position: Environmental Specialist II at U.S. Compliance
Nicole Colasacco-Thumm (M.S. 2015): An investigation of surface heat fluxes during El Niño – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) evolution in Reanalyses
Anne Sophie Daloz (Post Doc 2012-2014): Atlantic climate variability and tropical cyclones.
Current Position: Senior Researcher, CICERO
Ross Dixon (Ph.D. 2017, Co-advised with Matt Hitchman); Ph.D. Title: “On the Saharan Heat Low Bias in CMIP5 Models and its Relationship with Tropical Precipitation and Global Energy Transport Biases”.
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska Lincoln
Sharon Delcambre (Jaffe) (Ph.D. 2012): Jet Stream Portrayal in Present and Future Climate Model Simulations.
Current Position: Improvement and Impact Evaluator for Climate at ServeMinnesota.
Amato Evan (Ph.D. 2009): The role of aerosols in northern tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies.
Current Position: Associate Professor Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Gesangyangji (Co-advised with Tracey Holloway; Ph.D. 2023): Understanding the impact of climate change on energy demand in buildings.
Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Climate Change & Energy, Tsinghua University.
Alexander Haugstad (Undergraduate Research Advisor, 2014-2015): The influence of “The Blob” on climatic conditions over North America during Winter and Spring 2014.
Current Position: Graduate Student, University of Washington (K. Armour and D. Battisti, advisors).
Stephanie Henderson (NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow): The role of tropical / mid-latitude interactions in MJO variability.
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department, UW-Madison
Katie Holman (Ph.D. 2013): Hydrological variability in the Great Lakes region
Current Position: Hydrometeorologist, Atmospheric Scientist, Flood Hydrology and Consequences Group, Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, CO.
Abigail Jaye (Fontaine) (M.S. 2007): “Investigation of mid-latitude excitation of tropical variability in the Pacific”.
Current Position: Associate Scientist IV, NCAR.
Megan Kirchmeier-Young (Ph.D. 2015): A probabilistic perspective for statistical downscaling of climate variables: model development, application, and evaluation.
Current Position: Research Scientist, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Julie Leloup (Post Doc 2009-2011): Understanding ENSO biases in Global Climate Models.
Current Affiliation: LOCEAN/IPSL, UPMC, Sorbonne Universités, Paris
Sarah Larson (NOAA Climate and Global Change Post-Doctoral Research Associate): Tropical coupled variability, and mean state biases in GCMs.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, North Carolina State University
Cristián Martinez Villalobos (Ph.D. 2016); Ph.D. Title: “Deterministic and stochastic models of tropical climate variability”.
Current position: Assistant Professor, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez
Matt Sitkowski (Ph.D. 2012; Research advisor J. Kossin): “Investigation and Prediction of Hurricane Eyewall Replacement Cycles”
Current Position: Science Editor in Chief, The Weather Channel
Dimitry Smirnov (Ph.D. 2011): “Extratropical Forcing of Tropical Atlantic Variability”.
Current Position: Dewberry Consultants.
Erin Thomas (Ph.D. 2017); Ph.D. Title: “ENSO Initiation Mechanisms”.
Current position: Research Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kelsey Watkins (M.S. 2012): Effect of Dust Aerosol Radiative Forcing on Tropical Atlantic Climate.
Brian Zimmerman (NSF Graduate Research Fellow): A little bit of everything. Season-ahead precipitation forecasting, and banjo-playing included.
Current Position: Climate Scientist at Salient Predictions