You seem to have JavaScript disabled on your browser. Since parts of this website are written in JavaScript, please renable it in order to have the best experience possible.
AMS Resources and Response to the Federal Science Crisis
How will the AMS continue to demonstrate leadership? This is an important question to ask at what appears to be a pivotal moment for science. The current marginalization of our science, the complexities introduced by revolutionary technologies such as AI, and the uncertainty facing the next generation of scientists and scientific leaders, are all topics that demand leadership from the AMS. Such leadership is essential for our science to remain healthy, and able to deliver results that benefit the broadest possible range of society. What does that require?
First, the AMS must further its efforts to communicate the value of science to the well-being of our country, and do it in terms of outcomes that are, and will continue to be, broadly beneficial. The Framework for Government Interactions, drafted in 2005 and updated in 2018, needs reconsideration to promote more compelling advocacy of the weather, water and climate enterprise. The AMS could better coordinate and empower its local Chapters, who already work with their communities, to expand the ability of the society to promote the value of science. The AMS could also revamp how it communicates to its members and especially to those who make decisions that affect science.
Second, while the AMS has a STAC committee on AI, and a new journal emphasizing AI, the AMS could do more to provide guidance on AI/ML training, ethics, employment opportunities, and the use of AI in education and research (both for students and faculty). Given how this technology has already influenced our field, and shows more potential to do so, AMS should be demonstrating leadership by being more proactive and less reactive.
And finally, about the next generation of leaders, I am thrilled that AMS launched its Early-Career Leadership Academy a few years ago. We should continue to examine the efficacy of this training, and whether similar leadership and technical training for mid-career members can be delivered.
The issues above are ones that I feel are important, and moreover, where AMS should increase its national leadership. If elected, I would be excited and honored to work with other Council members and AMS leadership to pursue creative solutions to these and other challenges.
In 2026, Chris Davis became professor and Paros Chair for Atmospheric Research and Hazard Mitigation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In this role, Chris directs the Paros Center for Atmospheric Research, an interdisciplinary center devoted to weather research that benefits society. He continues a partial appointment as a senior scientist at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research where he was formerly a full-time scientist for 35 years. Chris is back in Massachusetts where his interest in meteorology began as a child and where he received both his bachelor’s degree (from UMass Amherst) and Ph. D. (from MIT).
Chris is a meteorologist who has done research on a variety of weather phenomena, emphasizing their dynamics and prediction, and has been fortunate to work with many fantastic collaborators. He has long held a keen interest in mentoring early-career scientists and has enjoyed watching many early-career colleagues develop their careers. Chris also has more than 15 years of leadership experience at NSF NCAR, being the Director of the Advanced Study Program (ASP), Director of the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology (MMM) Laboratory, and Deputy Director of NSF NCAR Education Engagement and Early-Career Development (EdEC). At the international level, Chris has served as chair of the Science Steering Committee of the WMO World Weather Research Programme since 2020.
Chris is an AMS Fellow, a recipient of the Joanne Simpson Mentorship Award, and has served on the AMS Mesoscale Committee (which he also chaired), the AMS Fellows Committee, and the AMS Nominations Committee.
Today, our scientific community finds itself at an inflection point that will have far-reaching consequences for society well into the future. Positioning ourselves to continue advancing our science for the benefit of society will be determined by how we navigate the challenges and opportunities of these times: rapid advances in technology, shifts in workforce norms and expectations, the continued erosion of public trust in science, and environmental threats that are impacting communities around the globe.
To address these challenges, we as a community need to be more intentional about what we study and how we study it, so that our scientific efforts are guided by the needs of communities. Farmers, infrastructure planners, community leaders, and everyday people are contending with increasingly frequent and extreme natural disasters, and are looking for information that will keep them and their livelihoods safe. We have a responsibility to be intentional about scaling up science guided by the goal of societal resilience.
The technological revolution we’re seeing, with rapid advances in high performance computing and artificial intelligence, presents extraordinary opportunities for our science. As we explore these opportunities, it’s critical that we’re careful to do so in a way that emphasizes reproducibility, scalability, broad accessibility, and responsibility.
As the next-generation workforce enters the field, we need to consider a new definition of success: one that values a wider range of contributions. We need to reward the contributions that make teams successful as much as we reward individual excellence.
Finally, it’s important that we work to expand trust with the public. We need to continue to explore, at scale, ways to inform taxpayers that our research — fundamental and applied — adds value to their lives.
If entrusted with the honor of serving on the AMS Council, I will work enthusiastically and collaboratively to advance these aspirations.
Everette Joseph joined NSF NCAR as director in 2019. In this role, he has provided leadership of NCAR’s strategic direction, reinforcing NCAR’s mission of advancing Earth system science in the research community with an emphasis on actionable science. Prior to his time at NCAR, he was director of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where he co-led the New York State Mesonet for advanced weather detection and the New York State Center of Excellence for the Weather Enterprise.
He has served as principal or co-principal investigator on research grants totaling over $200 million from agencies including NSF, NOAA, NASA, and the Army High Performance Computing Research Center.
Joseph joined the UCAR Board of Trustees in 2011, where he was elected vice chair in 2015 and chair in 2017. He has served as a member of the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). He has also served on the Steering Committee of the NASEM Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from space; the NOAA Science Advisory Board; and the American Meteorological Society Commission on the Weather, Water and Climate Enterprise.
Previously, at Howard University, Joseph was a full professor, director of the Program in Atmospheric Sciences, and deputy director of the NOAA Center for Atmospheric Science. Joseph played a key role in expanding the atmospheric science program at Howard and led the development of the Beltsville Center for Climate Observations – a major field program with university, government, and industry partners improving satellite atmospheric monitoring and weather, climate, and air quality forecasting over complex terrain — which he directed.
Joseph has supervised close to 20 Ph.D. students and mentored numerous undergraduate students on topics ranging from radiative transfer and remote sensing of clouds and aerosols to boundary layer meteorology and air quality. He has contributed to over 70 referred publications and numerous invited presentations and conference papers as author or co-author.
He earned his Ph.D. in physics with an emphasis on atmospheric science from the University at Albany. He is a fellow of the AMS.
In a recent letter the AMS wrote, “funding of basic science research is our seed corn for the future…[we must invest] in our future by using a small amount of funding now to support foundational research that has a large and positive impact on how we live tomorrow.” I fully share this conviction, particularly amid today’s constrained funding environment. As a professor at an undergraduate liberal arts institution, I have seen how closely mentored research can transform students who are still defining their intellectual and professional trajectories. Over the past 15 years, I have advised 85 summer and semester-length research opportunities and co-directed the long-running Northeast Partnership for Atmospheric and Related Sciences (NEPARS) REU program, which offered authentic, cohort-based research experiences to more than 100 students nationwide. These experiences have shown me that undergraduate research is not simply preparation for graduate study; it is a powerful mechanism for building confidence, sharpening judgment, and cultivating scientific identity. I am especially proud to have had 48 undergraduate student co-authors on publications, giving them direct experience with the research process from hypothesis generation to final page proofs. Such investments strengthen scientific literacy while developing the next generation of scientists, educators, communicators, and problem-solvers. Yet undergraduate training must also move beyond the fundamentals of atmospheric science to embrace interdisciplinary perspectives, because many of the most consequential 21st-century challenges will arise at disciplinary intersections. If elected to the AMS Council, I would work across the community to expand interdisciplinary research opportunities for undergraduate students in atmospheric and related sciences and to create additional venues for them to present their work, exchange ideas, and build cross-generational networks. These students are the future of our community, and strengthening this pipeline is, in the fullest sense, an investment in our future.
Nicholas Metz is Professor of Geoscience and Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs and Development at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS). A synoptic and mesoscale meteorologist, he earned a B.S. in meteorology from Valparaiso University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University at Albany.
During 15 years at HWS, Metz has taught more than one thousand students in introductory and advanced meteorology courses. Because many enter his classes with interests beyond atmospheric science, his teaching emphasizes interdisciplinary connections across the liberal arts curriculum. To extend learning beyond the classroom, he has led field experiences on the Big Island of Hawai?i and across the Midwest, using direct observation to animate core meteorological concepts. He has also mentored more than 85 undergraduates through authentic research projects that span hypothesis development, data collection, analysis, and dissemination, many centered on high-impact weather events accessible to early-career students. In addition, he co-directed the Northeast Partnership for Atmospheric and Related Sciences (NEPARS) REU program, a collaboration between HWS and Plymouth State University that supported more than 100 students. As Associate Provost, he now oversees the HWS summer research program across all disciplines, expanding participation from 70 to 120 students per year while increasing student compensation.
Metz was recently selected for the 2026–27 Council of Independent Colleges Senior Leadership Academy. His administrative leadership and long tenure as a professor at a small liberal arts institution committed to interdisciplinary education gives him a distinctive perspective on atmospheric science and on preparing the next generation of scientists.
That perspective is grounded in a lifelong fascination with weather, which began in childhood with daily check-ins on the Weather Channel to track severe storms unfolding across the country.