Richard B. Rood

Richard B. Rood

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Professor

Contact

(734) 647-3530

Location

2525 Climate & Space Research Building 2455 Hayward Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143

Additional Title(s)

Graduate advisor, Program: Applied Climate; Concentration: Climate Impact Engineering

Primary Website

Related links

Education

  • Ph.D., Meteorology, Florida State University
  • M.S., Meteorology, Florida State University
  • B.S., Physics, University of North Carolina

Teaching

Climate Change Classes

Professional Service

  • Fellow, American Meteorological Society
  • Member, American Geophysical Union

Research Interests

I teach several courses on climate change and the interface of climate change with all aspects of society. The centerpiece course focuses on climate change problem solving, which is taught in concert with the School of Sustainability and Environment. The class has included business students, policy students, art students, as well as students from several science and engineering departments.

An outcome of my teaching is the development of a program in applied climate. I am the advisor of our Masters of Engineering in Applied Climate as well as our undergraduate program in Climate Impacts. This program is a bit different than some of the other programs I have seen in applied climate. We strive to integrate principles of social science and knowledge systems to help accelerate the graduate’s effectiveness in their profession. A goal is to contribute to the development of a new profession of climate interpreters or translators. It is something new, and students with entrepreneurial skills are defining the profession. Much of this work is done in concert with the Great Lakes Integrates Sciences and Assessments (GLISA) Center.

My primary research interests are on climate change problem solving. I collaborate with many researchers across the university – being the climate person. My focus is on undergraduate and Master’s use-driven research. I only take Ph.D. students if they come with their own funding. I am delighted that all of my previous Ph.D. students have gainful employment and have been successful.

I continue to contribute to research projects on numerical algorithms with my collaborations. I am also active as a consultant to NOAA on their modeling activities and the Next Generation Global Prediction System.

I believe that public engagement by scientists is important. I wrote blogs for Wunderground.com for a decade, and I am currently curating those blogs for a more formal book.  I write occasional blogs for the America Meteorological Society’s Climatepolicy.org, as well as other on line platforms. A summary of my public engagement is at this link.

In 2016, with Andrew Gettelman, we published Demystifying Climate Models: A User’s Guide to Earth System Models. The electronic version is open access and can be downloaded here.

My Curriculum Vitae (CV) is linked above and is mostly complete and often current. I find it very difficult to say, “Go Blue.”

  • Use of climate information in planning and adaptation
  • Historically: Numerical methods, Weather and climate modeling, Stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry modeling, Data assimilation

Awards

  • World Meteorological Organization, Norbert Gerbier-Mumm International Award
  • NASA Group Achievement Awards (SOLVE, Forecasting Group, SPADE, AASE)
  • NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
  • NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal

Publications

Blogs

Papers and Reports

  • Author’s Personal Library: Most of my non-gray papers and reports are at this link.
    The format is year_FirstAuthor_ShortTitle_Journal_year. Use search in page. It might work.

A Sampling of Prof. Rood’s Non-scientific writings

If you need a photo, here they are.