Judith Curry Named One of Top 50 Women in STEM

TheBestSchools.org has named Judith A. Curry one of the top 50 women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The list comprises “the best women in their respective fields...with a lot of innate talent, certainly, but who have also put in a great deal of extremely hard work,” according to the list’s compiler.

Curry is professor emerita in the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS). She is named for the fields of geophysical sciences and climatology, the only person listed in these categories.

Her scientific accomplishments are reflected in 186 peer-reviewed papers. She is also co-author or co-editor of three textbooks:  

• with Vitaly I. Khvorostyanov, “Thermodynamics, Kinetics, and Microphysics of Clouds” (Cambridge University Press, 2014)
• with James R. Holton and John Pyle, “Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences” (Academic Press, 2003)
• with Peter J. Webster, “Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans” (Academic Press, 1998)

In addition, she cofounded Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN) with colleague and EAS Professor Peter J. Webster. The company aims to find new and better ways to apply weather and climate data, weather forecast information, and future regional climate scenarios to real-world decision-making to manage risks associated with the variability of climate and weather.

Curry was chair of EAS from 2002 to 2014. She retired from Georgia Tech at the end of 2016. She was named professor emerita in January 2017.

Her tenure as chair of EAS was marked by the high quality of faculty recruited under her leadership. The fruits of those efforts continue to be realized. For example, in the latest graduate school rankings by the U.S. News & World Report for Earth Sciences, Georgia Tech’s Earth program advanced four steps to rank 38, putting it in the top 30% of U.S. institutions surveyed.

Curry received a bachelor’s degree in geography from Northern Illinois University in 1974 and a Ph.D. in geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago in 1982.

Before joining Georgia Tech, she taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1982-86), Purdue University (1986-89), Pennsylvania State University (1989-92), and the University of Colorado, Boulder (1992-02).

Curry has served on NASA’s Advisory Council Earth Science Subcommittee, on the Climate Working Group of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and on the National Academies’ Space Studies Board and Climate Research Group.

She was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2004 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007.