Professor recognized for years of outstanding contributions to atmospheric science

An atmospheric sciences professor at Illinois has been named a 2017 Fellow of the American Meteorological Society for significant contributions to the field.

Greg McFarquhar was nominated and selected for his “outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences or their applications during a substantial period of years,” according to AMS, which bestows the honor upon only about 1 in 500 members each year.

McFarquhar joined Illinois in 2001 after receiving his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Toronto. He is the outgoing chair of the American Meteorological Society committee on cloud physics, and vice president of the International Commission on Clouds and Precipitation. He has more than 100 publications and has made more than 300 conference presentations.

His research has focused on clouds and their properties and connections to climate. Developing an understanding for something so integral to climate is imperative but difficult.

“My research for the past 20 to 25 years has been focused on trying to understand clouds and their connection to climate and weather,” McFarquhar said. “We have a poor understanding of clouds and are trying to better quantify the processes occurring in them.”

According to the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, McFarquhar specifically focuses on how clouds can affect the transmission of radiation through the atmosphere; how clouds and their impacts are represented in climate and weather models; how cloud processes affect hurricane evolution; and how anthropogenic aerosols affect clouds and Earth’s energy and water cycle.

Founded in 1919, the AMS serves as a scientific and professional organization that promotes and spreads information on atmospheric, oceanic and hydrologic sciences. The AMS honor caught McFarquhar completely off guard, but it was a pleasant surprise. 

"I was not expecting this. I am very appreciative of being awarded this honor," McFarquhar said.

McFarquhar said he plans to keep advancing his research and working towards a better understanding of clouds and their processes.

"In the next year or two I will be focusing on the use of aircrafts to measure cloud properties in Africa and Australia in order to better understand cloud processes," he said.