Roni Avissar: Pilots UM’s Rosenstiel School to new era and helicopter too

Roni Avissar has been dean of the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science at the University of Miami since 2009, helping to elevate it into a modern hub of innovative research and education by improving its facilities and reorganizing the business operations.

Dr. Avissar has focused more than 34 years of research on engineering, weather and climate mechanisms, hurricane studies and deforestation of the Amazon, and has developed methods to observe the environment, such as the Helicopter Observation Platform, using a specially-engineered and equipped helicopter that he pilots; and models such as the Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Model, a numerical Earth system model that can be used to investigate and predict the track and intensity of hurricanes as well as the global and regional climate.

His research has been awarded grants by the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Office of Army Research, and the US departments of Energy and of Agriculture, among others.

He is a recipient of the American Geophysical Union’s Robert E. Horton Award in 1998, the 1993 Rutgers University – Cook College Research Excellence Award, and an award for outstanding service from the National Research Council in 2002.

Dr. Avissar spoke with Miami Today reporter Monica Correa.

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