Richard D. Clark is the Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences and Professor of Meteorology at Millersville University of Pennsylvania where he has been for 28 years. His research interests are boundary layers and turbulence and air chemistry with a special emphasis on field observations using remote-sensing and balloon-borne platforms. He also has a strong interest in space weather and climate science applications, and recently spearheaded the development of an academic minor in Heliophysics and Space Weather. Clark developed the framework and curriculum for the M.S. in Integrated Scientific Applications, which includes specializations in Climate Science Applications, Weather Intelligence and Risk Management, Environmental Earth Systems Management, and Geoinformatics, and serves as the program coordinator. He is also spearheading the development of a new program, the B.S. in Environmental Engineering.
Clark has a Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University of Wyoming (’87). He was elected Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and is member of the American Geophysical Union and Sigma Xi. Clark served on as a member of AMS Council (2008-11) and completed two terms as a member of the Board of Trustees (2009-2015) of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). He was the recipient of the 2006 Russell L. DeSouza Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Unidata Community and the 2008 AMS Teaching Excellence Award. Clark has been awarded over $3.0 M in extramural funding since 2005 and has involved over 100 undergraduate students in field research through this funding. A current project, “Plains Elevated Convection at Night” (summer 2015) is a multi-institutional study of the conditions associated with mesoscale convective complexes, convective initiation, bores, and the low-level jet. Recent projects include a NASA funded DISCOVER-AQ, a study of air quality in four areas (CA, TX, CO, MD) and an NSF-funded study of Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems (OWLeS). More recently, Clark was elected to the Board of Directors of the North Museum of Nature and Science and appointed to the UCAR Advocacy for the Science Community (UASC) committee.