Brief Biography:            November 2026

Professor Emeritus Dennis L. Hartmann

Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science

University of Washington

Seattle, Washington USA

Dennis L. Hartmann received his Ph.D. in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics from Princeton University.  After post-doctoral appointments at McGill University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, he joined the faculty of the University of Washington, where he is currently Emeritus Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science.  He served as Chair of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences from 2002-2007.  He served as Interim Dean during the first two years of the College of the Environment from 2008-2010, and again in 2021.

Hartmann's research interests include dynamics of the atmosphere, atmosphere-ocean interaction, and climate change. His primary areas of expertise are atmospheric dynamics, radiation and remote sensing, and mathematical and statistical techniques for data analysis.  Recent research includes the study of climate feedback processes involving clouds and water vapor, which is approached using remote sensing data, in situ data and models, and attempts to take into account radiative, dynamical and cloud-physical processes. Another focus of his research has been observational and modeling studies of the intraseasonal and interannual variability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system, especially the role of eddy-zonal flow feedbacks and annular modes of variability.  Other interests have been the stratosphere and its role in climate, and the response of El Niño to global warming.

Hartmann has published nearly 200 articles in refereed scientific journals and published a textbook on Global Physical Climatology in 1994, with a second edition in 2016 and a third edition in 2026. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2005.  He was the 2011 Haurwitz Memorial Lecturer for the American Meteorological Society. In 2013 he was awarded the Carl Gustav Rossby Research Medal of the American Meteorological Society, its highest award for research excellence. In 2016 he was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Washington State Academy of Sciences. In 2022 he received the Roger Revelle Medal of the American Geophysical Union. He has served on numerous advisory, editorial and review boards for the NAS, NSF, NASA and NOAA, and was the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research from 2011-2013.  He served as a Coordinating Lead Author for the Fifth Assessment of The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 2010-2014. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Climate of the American Meteorological Society, Editor for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Associate Editor of PNAS-Nexus.