Professors Adames Corraliza and Oyola-Merced Named Distinguished Chairs
August 19, 2025
The UW–Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) is pleased to announce Professors Ángel Adames Corraliza and Mayra Oyola-Merced as the newest Ned P. Smith Distinguished Chairs of Climatology and Meteorology, respectively.
In 2015, support from Ned Smith and John and Tashia Morgridge led to the development of two professorships in AOS. Five years later, another Morgridge match inspired Smith to turn those professorships into distinguished chairs: the Ned P. Smith Distinguished Chair in Meteorology and the Ned P. Smith Distinguished Chair in Climatology. The support of these chairs has been transformational for the department, enabling new frontiers of research.
Ned P. Smith Distinguished Chair of Climatology
For Adames Corraliza, the tropics are where his interests lie. Historically, these latitudes have lacked the level of attention compared to the middle latitudes. While there has been progress in recent decades, a foundational understanding of the processes that govern the tropics remains lacking, partly due to the absence of a theory that explains the region’s primary features.
“The goal of my work as the distinguished chair of climatology is to help develop some of the basic underpinnings of this theory,” says Adames Corraliza. “Our group seeks to better understand what controls rainfall at a variety of scales, how fluctuations in wind, moisture and temperature influence clouds, and how all of this conspire to create the diversity and richness of weather and climate systems that we see in the tropics.”
Ned P. Smith Distinguished Chair of Meteorology
As a pilot in training, Oyola-Merced is keen to expand research on aviation weather hazards, such as turbulence, which is becoming more frequent and severe in key flight corridors across the U.S. Support from her role as the distinguished chair of meteorology will open up new modeling efforts over high-risk regions, including Wisconsin airspace, and apply machine learning tools to improve the identification and prevention of these hazards.
In addition, Oyola-Merced notes, “we’re also strengthening partnerships with aviation industry stakeholders and creating new hands-on research opportunities for students. My goal is to connect advanced science with real-world solutions—supporting safer, more resilient aviation while training the next generation of atmospheric scientists.”
About Ned Smith
Smith received all three degrees (BS 1965, MS 1967, PhD 1972) from UW–Madison, with his undergraduate and master’s degrees in meteorology (now AOS) and a PhD in oceanography and limnology. As a PhD student, he collected pioneering observations of Lake Superior surface temperatures with AOS Professor Emeritus Bob Ragotzkie. In 2024, Smith was the inaugural recipient of the Champion of AOS Award.