Louis John Wicker (born September 30, 1959) is an American atmospheric scientist with expertise in numerical analysis, numerical simulation, and

forecasts Forecasting is the process of making predictions based on past and present data. Later these can be compared (resolved) against what happens. For example, a company might estimate their revenue in the next year, then compare it against the actual ...

of severe convection and tornadoes. Doing

storm chasing Storm chasing is broadly defined as the deliberate pursuit of any severe weather phenomenon, regardless of motive, but most commonly for curiosity, adventure, scientific investigation, or for news or media coverage. A person who chases storm ...

field research, Wicker deployed the

TOtable Tornado Observatory The TOtable Tornado Observatory (nicknamed "TOTO") is a large, instrumented barrel-shaped device invented in 1979 by engineers Dr. Al Bedard and Carl Ramzy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Environmental Technology Labor ...

(TOTO) and was in leadership roles in the VORTEX projects. He is also known for pioneering work simulating convection at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC).Curriculum Vitae for Dr. Louis J. Wicker
/ref> Wicker earned a B.S. and M.S. in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma (OU) in 1984 and 1986, respectively, with the masters thesis: ''A Simulation Study of a Data Assimilation Scheme Designed for VAS Temperature Soundings''. He was awarded a Ph.D. in

atmospheric sciences Atmospheric science is the study of the Earth's atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Climatology is the study of ...

from UIUC in 1990 with the doctoral dissertation: ''A Numerical Study of a Tornado-Scale Vortex in a Three-Dimensional Cloud Model''. From 1990-1992 he was a Visiting Associate Research Scientist at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at UIUC and at NCSA. Wicker was a professor at Texas A&M University (TAMU) from 1992-1999. In 1999 he joined the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) as a research meteorologist and is a Fellow of the

Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies The Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies is a research organization created in 1978 by a cooperative agreement between the University of Oklahoma (OU) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). CIMMS pro ...

(CIMMS). At NSSL/CIMMS, he is an affiliate associate professor in the School of Meteorology at OU. He was on the steering committee and was a principal investigator (PI) of VORTEX2, the field phase of which occurred from 2009-2010.VORTEX2
/ref>

References

External links

NSSL staff page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wicker, Louis J. University of Oklahoma alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Texas A&M University faculty University of Oklahoma faculty American meteorologists Storm chasers 1959 births Living people