McWilliams received his college degrees in Applied Mathematics: a
B.S. (with honors) in 1968 from Caltech and a M.S. in 1969 and
Ph.D. in 1971 from Harvard. After holding a Research Fellowship in
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics at Harvard (1971-74), he worked in the
Oceanography Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR), where he became a Senior Scientist in 1980. In 1994 he became
the Louis B. Slichter Professor of Earth Sciences in the Department of
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary
Physics at UCLA, while retaining a part-time appointment at NCAR. In
2002, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
McWilliams' primary areas of scientific research are the fluid
dynamics of Earth's oceans and atmosphere, both their theory and
computational modeling. Particular subjects include the maintenance of
the general circulations; climate dynamics; geostrophically and
cyclostrophically balanced (or slow manifold) dynamics in rotating,
stratified fluids; vortex dynamics; planetary boundary layers;
planetary-scale thermohaline convection; the roles of coherent
structures in turbulent flows in geophysical and astrophysical
regimes; numerical algorithms; statistical estimation theory; and coastal
ocean modeling.
In the past several years he has helped develop a three-dimensional
simulation model of the U.S. West Coast that incorporates physical
oceanographic, biogeochemical, and sediment transport aspects of the coastal circulation.
This model is being used to interpret coastal phenomena, diagnose
historical variability in relation to observational data, and assess
future possibilities.
Related Projects:
Center for Earth Systems
Research
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