May 1, 2019
Atmospheric scientist Chris Bretherton elected to National Academy of Sciences
Chris Bretherton, a University of Washington professor, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Bretherton is one of 100 new members elected for their “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research” who were announced April 30 by the academy.
Christopher Bretherton
The newly elected members bring the total number of active members to 2,347 and the total number of nonvoting foreign associates to 487.
Bretherton, a UW professor jointly appointed in the departments of Atmospheric Sciences and Applied Mathematics, works on clouds and climate. He earned his undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology and his doctorate in 1984 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then did postdoctoral research at the National Center for Atmospheric Research before joining the UW faculty in 1985.
Bretherton studies how clouds form and change over time and how to better represent these processes in global climate and weather-forecasting models. His research also looks at the role that clouds may play in climate change.
Bretherton is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society and a recipient of the Jule G. Charney Award, a career research award from the American Meteorological Society. He was a lead author of the chapter on clouds and aerosols for the 2013 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and he is a former director of the UW’s Program on Climate Change.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and — along with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine — provides science, engineering and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.
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Tag(s): Chris Bretherton • College of Arts & Sciences • College of the Environment • Department of Applied Mathematics • Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science
