UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — David Stensrud, professor of meteorology at Penn State, has been voted president-elect of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). He will be inducted to the post on Sunday, Jan. 28, during the 104th AMS Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.
Stensrud will serve a one-year term as president-elect and in 2025, he will assume the presidency of the society, which was founded in 1919 and has a membership of nearly 12,000 weather, water and climate professionals. AMS is the nation’s premier scientific and professional organization promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic and hydrologic sciences.
"I am very proud of our community for the amazing progress we have made in understanding and predicting the earth system, positively impacting the lives of people across the world,” said Stensrud. “And society’s need for weather, water and climate information will only continue to grow as we prepare for and respond to hazardous events and anthropogenic climate change. AMS plays a key role in these efforts. I hope to strengthen AMS's continuing work to build a more diverse, inclusive and equitable culture that supports its members as we interact with the wider world. We are stronger and more resilient in community.”
Stensrud has served in many AMS leadership roles. He was a member and chair of the Committee on Mesoscale Processes, program co-chair for several conferences and symposia, editor and co-chief editor of the journal Weather and Forecasting, commissioner of the Scientific and Technological Activities Commission, and member of the finance committee. He is a fellow of AMS and has been a member of AMS since he was a student.
Stensrud has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Penn State, has mentored dozens of master’s degree and doctoral students, and has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and a textbook, “Parameterization Schemes: Keys to Understanding Numerical Weather Models.” He has received professional honors including the White House Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the NOAA Distinguished Career Award, and the AMS Clarence Leroy Meisinger and Charles Franklin Brooks awards.
Prior to joining the Penn State faculty in 2014, Stensrud was a research meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, where he served as leader of the Models and Assimilation Team and chief of the Forecast Research and Development Division.
Stensrud served as head of Penn State’s Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science from 2014 to 2023. He earned a bachelor’s degree in meteorology and mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his master’s degree and doctorate in meteorology from Penn State.