Roger M. Wakimoto

Roger M. Wakimoto
Roger Wakimoto (right), in field project with students, 2010
Born	(1953-12-11) December 11, 1953 (age 63)
Institutions	UCLA, NCAR, NSF
Alma mater	San Jose State University (B.S., 1976) University of Chicago (Ph.D., 1981)
Thesis	Investigations of Thunderstorm Gust Fronts from Project NIMROD Data (1981)
Doctoral advisor	Ted Fujita
Influences	Ted Fujita, David Atlas

Roger M. Wakimoto (born 11 December 1953) is an atmospheric scientist specializing in research on mesoscale meteorology, particularly severe convective storms and radar meteorology. A former director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Wakimoto in November 2012 was appointed as assistant director of the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Wakimoto studied meteorology at San Jose State University (SJSU), earning a B.S. as a Graduate with Honors and Great Distinction in 1976. He then earned a Ph.D. in geophysical science at the University of Chicago in 1981 with the dissertation Investigations of Thunderstorm Gust Fronts from Project NIMROD Data under advisor Ted Fujita. He was a research associate in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences from 1981-1983.

In 1983, Wakimoto became an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where he remained for 22 years, eventually was promoted to professor in 1993 and served as department chairperson from 1996-2000.

Wakimoto arrived at the NCAR in 2005 as associate director of the Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) and was appointed director of NCAR in 2010.Dr. Wakimoto remained director of NCAR until February 2013 when he was offered a post by the National Science Foundation NSF as assistant director for the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO). Wakimoto was a principal investigator of VORTEX2, the field project phase of which occurred in 2009-2010. He has participated in a dozen major field experiments including NIMROD (1978), JAWS (1982), ERICA (1988/89), VORTEX (1994/95), FASTEX (1997), IHOP (2002), BAMEX (2003), and VORTEX2 (2009/10).