College of Engineering Names New Chair for the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
Allison L. Steiner, Ph.D., has been appointed chair of U-M Climate and Space by the University of Michigan Board of Regents.
Allison L. Steiner, Ph.D., has been appointed chair of the University of Michigan Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering (CLaSP) by the University of Michigan Board of Regents.
Steiner, who previously served as interim department chair, will begin serving as chair of the department on July 1, 2025.
Steiner joined the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in 2006, working on the CLaSP faculty in the College of Engineering (COE) with an affiliated faculty appointment in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the U-M College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA). As chair of CLaSP, she will oversee a science-driven department with more than 60 faculty members who are leading advancements in meteorology, climate sciences, space sciences, systems engineering, and spacecraft instrumentation.
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have built my career in CLaSP alongside such outstanding colleagues, students, and staff. It’s an honor to be chosen to lead the department,” said Steiner.
Steiner served as acting chair of the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering in fall 2023 and associate chair for graduate studies for three years, where she worked to promote inclusivity in the graduate program. Her research focuses on understanding the intersections between atmospheric chemistry and regional climate.
She has served as president of the Atmospheric Sciences section of the American Geophysical Union, and an editor for the AGU Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. She has also served on numerous professional society boards, including as a member of the National Research Council’s committee The Future of Atmospheric Chemistry Research report and the National Academy of Sciences Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate.
Steiner completed her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and obtained her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has worked as a visiting scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado; the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, in Italy; and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. She also trained as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley.