Dan Vimont named new department chair
August 25, 2026
The UW–Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Dan Vimont as department chair. He succeeds Professor Ankur Desai, who has held the position since 2021.
“It is with a great deal of excitement that I begin my term as department chair,” notes Vimont. “AOS provides a world-class, transformative education for our students. The creativity and caliber of our research is changing the world. And each day I get to work with a group of colleagues who are deeply committed to fostering a welcoming departmental culture for all.”
Vimont brings extensive leadership experience to the position. He has been an AOS professor since 2003 and leads the Vimont Climate Research Group, which focuses on mechanisms of climate variability and change, interactions between weather and climate, and the global and regional impacts of climate change. He was also the director of the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research and co-director of the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts.
“I have the utmost confidence in the leadership of Dan Vimont,” says Desai. “I look forward to continuing efforts to grow our nurturing environment for learning and research excellence for which our department has earned its reputation.”
AOS would like to thank and extend its appreciation to Professor Desai, who, during his term helped strengthen and grow the department, even amid challenging circumstances such as a pandemic and an uncertain federal funding landscape.
“I also want to express my deep gratitude to Professor Desai,” says Vimont. “He did so much to ground our department in a strong set of values, provide a roadmap for how we operate, and help with my transition into this position. I look forward to building on that foundation in the years to come.”