Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd is a leading international expert in weather and climate and is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia. Dr. Shepherd was the 2013 President of American Meteorological Society (AMS), the nation’s largest and oldest professional/science society in the atmospheric and related sciences. Dr. Shepherd serves as Director of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Atmospheric Sciences Program and Full Professor in the Department of Geography where he was a previous Associate Department Head. Dr. Shepherd also holds a joint appointment in the College of Engineering and is the Associated Director for Climate and Outreach in its Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS).

Dr. Shepherd has received numerous awards including the 2004 White House PECASE Award, the Captain Planet Foundation Protector of the Earth Award, the 2019 AGU Climate Communication Prize, the 2020 Mani L. Bhaumik Award for Public Engagement with Science and the 2018 AMS Helmut Landsberg Award. In 2021, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He is the host of the popular and informative WeatherGeeks podcast addressing a wide range of important issues in meterology and atomspheric sciences.