Prof. Clark Evans (he/him/his) is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and the Chair of the Atmospheric Sciences Program in the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences. He is also an affiliate faculty member of the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute. He joined UWM’s faculty in 2011 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship with the Advanced Study Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Meteorology from Florida State University in 2004, 2006, and 2009, respectively.
Clark’s research uses numerical models to better understand and predict high-impact weather phenomena, particularly tropical cyclones and severe thunderstorms. He is also interested in studying how humans perceive, prepare for, and respond to threats from these phenomena. He has published twenty-six papers in the peer-reviewed literature, many with the graduate and undergraduate students with whom he has worked as lead author, and he has served as PI or co-PI on seventeen funded awards totaling $4.7 million. He was a 2021 recipient of the UWM Office of Research/UWM Foundation Faculty Research Award. More details are available in his Curriculum Vita.
Clark is passionate about service in the profession, at UWM, and in the community. Currently, Clark serves as the Incoming Commissioner for the American Meteorological Society’s Scientific and Technological Activities Commission, an Editor for Monthly Weather Review, a member and Co-Chair of the AMS’s Future of Meetings Task Force, and a member of the Developmental Testbed Center’s Science Advisory Board. Locally, he is the faculty advisor for The Climate Consensus student organization. Between May 2023 and April 2024, he also served in his community as a Trustee of the Village of Grafton, WI. He was a 2021 recipient of the UWM Distinguished Faculty University Service Award and 2023 recipient of the UWM Distinguished Faculty Public Service Award.
On a personal level, Clark is interested in his faith, running, cycling, sports, hiking, photography, cartography, historical accounts, and traveling. Far too many of his conversations revolve around the weather, even when he’s actively trying to keep it from happening. He loves parks and trails and is a big fan of being outside, particularly when the sky is blue, the fields are green, and the air is warm. You’ll find him gleeful about the first warm days of spring and counting down the days to the return of daylight-saving time in winter. He lives north of Milwaukee with his wife, Susanna, and son. You can follow Clark on Twitter @ClarkEvansWx or on LinkedIn.
Our Group
We’re a small group that prides ourselves on fostering supportive relationships in and beyond the academic environment. Read on to learn more about our background and our research! Or, click here to learn more about our growing roster of group alumni, all of whom have gone on to employment in research, operations, and the private sector.
Kade Barkas
(they/them)
Dillon Blount
Kathryn Boyle
Collin DeYoung
Brian Foster
Drew Hickok
Michael Vossen
Kade Barkas (they/them) is a sophomore undergraduate major. They joined the group in spring 2023. Kade is studying how meteorological seasons are defined, with particular interest in quantifying the overlap between the severe-weather and hurricane seasons in the southern and eastern United States.
Dillon Blount is a third-year Ph.D. student. He completed his M.S. in Atmospheric Science at UWM in 2021 and his B.S. in Meteorology at the University of South Alabama in 2019. His Ph.D. research focuses on partitioning contributions to mesoscale convective system rear inflow in both observations and real-data numerical simulations.
Kathryn Boyle is a first-year M.S. student. She joined the group in fall 2023 after completing her B.S. in Meteorology at the University of Georgia. Kathryn’s M.S. research seeks to assess how downstream baroclinic development fostered the extratropical transition of tropical cyclones will change in future climates.
Collin DeYoung is a second-year M.S. student. He joined the group in fall 2022 after completing his B.S. in Meteorology at Central Michigan University. Collin’s M.S. research seeks to better understand the atmospheric boundary layer structure over Lake Michigan and develop and test an algorithm for objectively identifying the lake-breeze front.
Brian Foster is a first-year M.S. student, co-advised with Prof. Sergey Kravtsov. He joined the group in fall 2023 after completing his B.S. in Atmospheric Science at North Carolina State University. Brian’s M.S. research seeks to advance understanding of the interaction of tropical-cyclone-like vortices with frontal zones.
Drew Hickok is a senior undergraduate atmospheric science major. He joined the group in summer 2022. Drew is developing an updated climatology of tropical cyclones that maintain their intensity or intensify while over land.
Michael Vossen is a third-year Ph.D. student. He completed his M.S. in Atmospheric Science at UWM in 2021 and his B.S. in Meteorology at St. Cloud State University in 2019. His Ph.D. research is working to better quantify the land-surface thermodynamic processes supporting the weakly baroclinic intensification and maintenance of tropical storms and hurricanes over land.