Vernon Morris PhD

Dr. Morris is a Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences and the Director of the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. Previously, Dr. Morris was a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at Howard University. At Howard, he was the Principal Investigator and Founding Director of the NOAA Cooperative Science Center in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology (NCAS-M). Dr. Morris also founded the HU Graduate Program in Atmospheric Sciences (HUPAS). HUPAS is the first PhD-degree granting Atmospheric Sciences program at any minority-serving institution and is a national leader in the production of minority PhDs in its field. Under his leadership, over 50% of the African American and 30% of the Hispanic American PhDs in Atmospheric Sciences produced from 2006 to 2018 in the United States graduated from this program. 97% of the program's alumni are working in their respective fields across federal agencies, the private sector, and academia.

Dr. Morris' research focuses on the chemical evolution of atmospheric particulate during transport and residence times in the lower troposphere and the implications to aerobiology, climate, and cloud processes. He has served as Chief Scientist for eleven trans-Atlantic science expeditions (the AERosols and Ocean Science Expeditions - AEROSE) aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) class-1 research vessel, the Ronald H. Brown. Each time he led an international team of scientists in a multidisciplinary study of the influences and life cycle of atmospheric particles emitted from the Saharan Desert on the regional atmosphere and ocean. The AEROSE data represent the most extensive set of in situ observations of Saharan Air Layer in the Tropical Atlantic. These data have been used for improved satellite retrievals, data assimilation for hurricane and tropical storm forecasts, validation of NOAA, DoD, and European numerical weather prediction models, and improved parameterizations for global forecasts.

Dr. Morris' honors include the AGU's Presidential Citation for Science and Society (2020), election as a Fellow of the African Science Institute (2019), the AMS Charles Anderson Award (2017), and election as a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (2016). He currently serves on the EPA Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, the American Geophysical Unions Diversity and Inclusion Committee, the UCAR Board of Trustees, and as a Councilor of the American Meteorological Society.