Dr. Ming Ji

Dr. Ming Ji is currently the acting Director of the National Weather Service's National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). In this position, he oversees the planning, operations and science and technology integration of NCEP's Central Operations and Environmental Modeling Center. He is also responsible for oversight of NCEP's seven national service centers that deliver warning, forecast and guidance services for specific weather, ocean, climate, coastal and space weather phenomena. These centers include the Aviation Weather Center (Kansas City, MO), National Hurricane Center (Miami, FL), Space Weather Prediction Center (Boulder, CO), and the Storm Prediction Center (Norman, OK), as well as the Climate Prediction Center, Ocean Prediction Center, and Weather Prediction Center. in College Park, MD.

Dr. Ji was Director of NCEP's Ocean Prediction Center (OPC) from 2006 - 2013. Prior to joining OPC, he directed NOAA's seasonal to interannual climate research and prediction programs at NOAA Climate Program Office from 2001 to 2006 where he focused his efforts on enhancing NOAA operational climate forecasts at the National Weather Service, and enhancing applications and services of seasonal climate forecasts for resource management at regional and sectorial levels. From 1986 to 2001, Ming Ji was a research scientist at NCEP's Climate Prediction Center and Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) and later served as the Chief of EMC's Climate Modeling Branch.

His research interests at NCEP span the multi-disciplinary area of climate variability and prediction, ocean data assimilation, El Niño and seasonal climate forecasting, and climate modeling. He has authored or co-authored more than 35 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters.

In addition, he is serving as the Service Program Coordinator for the WMO-IOC Joint technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) which he is responsible for international coordination on weather, ocean and sea ice safety services for maritime navigation, coastal hazard disaster risk reduction, and the development of operational ocean forecasting capability.

Dr. Ji received a B.S. in Physics at Peking University, Beijing, China in 1981 and a Ph.D. in Meteorology at University of Maryland, College Park, Md. in 1989. He has served on a number of NOAA, National, and International panels and committees concerning weather, ocean and climate research, operations and science programs. He is currently serving as the NWS member on the NOAA Ocean and Coast Council and the NOAA RESTORE Act Science Program executive oversight board.

Dr. Ji is a member of American Meteorological Society and American Geophysical Union. He is the recipient of two U.S. Department of Commerce Gold medals and one Bronze medal award.