Steve Nesbitt

Professor and Head
Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences (CliMAS)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

E-mail: snesbitt@illinois.edu

Phone: (217) 244-3740

Office: 3074 Natural History Building

Positions Held

  • Head, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA (2023-present)
  • Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Atmospheric Sciences, Urbana, IL, US (2006-present)
  • Associate Head and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA (2021-2023)
  • Visiting Researcher, National Meteorological Service – Argentina, Buenos Aires, Not Applicable, N/A, Argentina (2015)
  • Research Scientist I, II, Colorado State University, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Fort Collins, CO, USA (2003-2006)

Education

  • BS with honors Meteorology, State University College at Oswego, Oswego, NY, 1997
  • MS, Meteorology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 1999
  • PhD, Meteorology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 2003

Bio Sketch

Steve is a Professor and Department Head head of the Department of Climate, Meteorology, and Atmospheric Sciences (CliMAS) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research and teaching interests span radar meteorology, satellite meteorology, tropical meteorology, mesoscale meteorology, and data science. His research has focused on studies of clouds, precipitation processes, mesoscale convective systems, convective initiation, terrain-convection interactions, retrievals of cloud and precipitation processes, cloud dynamics, high-impact weather, high resolution atmospheric modeling, and the use of remote sensing information to improve models and in data assimilation.

He has participated in and led numerous field campaigns spanning four continents ground-based and aircraft instrumentation. notably he was the lead Principal Investigator of the NSF/NOAA/NASA RELAMPAGO (Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations) field campaign, which observed convective storms in central Argentina alongside the DOE CACTI (Clouds, Aerosols, and Complex Terrain Interactions) field campaign, which he served as a Co-Lead Investigator.  He is co-author of the 2018 textbook Radar Meteorology, A First Course.

He is the Chief Editor of the Journal of Atmospheric and Ocean Technology atmosphere section. He has chaired several national conferences and symposia, and was the chair of the American Meteorological Society Science and Technological Activities Commission for Radar Meteorology. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

Research Interests

  • Atmospheric convection, initiation, and organization
  • Severe and high-impact weather
  • Mountain meteorology
  • Mesoscale meteorology
  • Radar and satellite remote sensing
  • Cloud physics and dynamics
  • Clouds, precipitation, and climate