Dr. Wayne Higgins

Dr. Wayne Higgins is currently the acting Director of the National Weather Service, National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). In his position, he is responsible for directing and planning the science, technology and operations related to NCEP's Central Operations and Environmental Modeling Center as well as seven national centers that forecast specific weather phenomena. These centers include the Aviation Weather Center (Kansas City, MO), Climate Prediction Center, National Hurricane Center (Miami, FL), Ocean Prediction Center, Space Weather Prediction Center (Boulder, CO), Storm Prediction Center (Norman, OK), Weather Prediction Center.

Prior to his selection as acting NCEP Director, Dr. Higgins was the Director of NCEP's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) from 2007-2013. Prior to that, he also served as the first Director of CPC's Climate Test Bed for three years. He first joined CPC in 1994, starting as a research meteorologist and advancing to principal scientist.

Dr. Higgins research interests span climate variability and change and weather - climate linkages (including extreme events), with emphasis on diagnostic evaluation of observations and models to improve climate prediction. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, five book chapters, 32 atlases and technical reports, and 165 conference proceedings.

Dr. Higgins received his PhD (1987) and Masters of Science (1983) degrees in Meteorology from the Pennsylvania State University and his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana (1980). He has served as Chair and Lead of the North American Monsoon Experiment Science Working Group of the World Climate Research Program from 1999-2007, and is currently Chair of the Variability of the American Monsoons (VAMOS) Panel. For NOAA, he currently serves on four Societal Challenge Project Executive Working Groups (Water, Extremes, Coasts, Marine Ecosystems), the Climate Executive Board, the International Research Institute ISTAC Committee, and the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites Executive Board. In recent years he has also served as the chair of the World Climate Research Program Variability of the American Monsoons (VAMOS) Panel and member of the Climate Prediction Program for the Americas Science Panel. Dr. Higgins is also an advisor for the National Research Council Resident Research Associate Program and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of MD and Florida State University.

Dr. Higgins was made a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 2009. He has received the Administrators Award, a Silver Medal and two Bronze Medals for his work at NOAA. He has spoken at more than 250 national and international conferences, society meetings, workshops and seminars, and at Washington, DC area business and academic gatherings.