Robert "Rob" Wood is a British-American atmospheric scientist and a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington. He has researched on marine stratocumulus clouds, cloud-aerosol interactions, and their role in the Earth's climate system. In 2024, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Wood was born and raised in Manchester, England. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge in 1992. During his undergraduate studies, he developed an interest in geophysics and remote sensing. He later pursued a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Physics at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), where he studied the dynamics of sea breezes and boundary-layer processes under the mentorship of Peter Jonas.[1]
Academic career
Wood began his career as a research scientist at the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office from 1997 to 2001. In 2001, he joined the University of Washington as a postdoctoral researcher before becoming a research assistant professor in 2003. He was promoted to full professor in 2014.[1]
At UW, Wood has served as associate dean for research (2017–2020) and co-chair of the Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Warm Boundary Layer Processes Working Group since 2017.[2]
Research contributions
Wood's research focuses on understanding marine stratocumulus clouds and their interactions with aerosols. His contributions include:
Developed models linking mesoscale cellular convection (MCC) with precipitation processes and large-scale meteorological drivers.[3]
Investigated how aerosols influence cloud brightness (albedo) and precipitation through field campaigns like VOCALS-REx and ACE-ENA.[1]
Methods for using satellite data to study mixing processes in clouds and aerosol-cloud interactions.[3]
Honors and awards
AGU Fellow (2024): Recognized for exceptional contributions to atmospheric science through breakthroughs in understanding cloud-aerosol interactions.[2]
AGU Ascent Award (2017): For excellence in research on marine boundary-layer clouds.[3]
Selected publications
Wood, R., & Bretherton, C.S. (2006). "On the relationship between stratiform low cloud cover and lower-tropospheric stability." *Journal of Climate*, 19(24), 6425–6432.
Wood, R., et al. (2011). "The VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx)." *Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics*, 11(2), 627–654.
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