NEWS
NORMAN, OKLA. – Robert Palmer, Ph.D., has been named the next dean of the University of Oklahoma College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences and director of the National Weather Center, effective July 1, pending OU Board of Regents’ approval.
Palmer has a long history of leadership at OU. He founded the Advanced Radar Research Center and has served as its executive director since 2005. In 2012, he became an associate vice president for research and partnerships, and in December 2024, he assumed the role of interim director of the National Weather Center. He joined the University of Oklahoma in 2004 as the Tommy C. Craighead Chair and Professor in the School of Meteorology, and holds an adjunct position in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
“Dr. Palmer has been a driving force behind OU’s rise as a global leader in atmospheric sciences, contributing landmark advancements in radar meteorology and fostering strategic partnerships that have enhanced the OU research enterprise,” said André-Denis Wright, senior vice president and provost for the OU Norman campus. “His career reflects a deep commitment to advancing knowledge and innovation, and we are proud to have such a distinguished leader guiding the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences and the National Weather Center.”
Palmer’s research reflects a career at the forefront of radar meteorology and technology. Under Palmer’s leadership, the ARRC team developed Horus, the world's first fully digital phased array weather radar. Throughout his career, he secured over $115 million in competitive funding for the advancement of radar science.
His dedication to interdisciplinary research has led to collaborations across the university and with academic and research entities around the world, contributing to OU’s international reputation for radar science excellence. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles, multiple book chapters and a co-authored book on topics including radar technologies, signal processing and weather phenomena.
An electrical engineer, Palmer is a fellow of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Meteorological Society, again underscoring his commitment to interdisciplinary research. He is also a Scientific Fellow of the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory and OU’s Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations.
Palmer earned his doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma. After completing his PhD, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Radio Atmospheric Science Center at Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. Before returning to OU, Palmer was a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Nebraska.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
University of Oklahoma graduate Lucy Coleman has been selected for the National Institutes of Health Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program, an elite international doctoral training program that partners the NIH with the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge to prepare future leaders in biomedical research.
Entrepreneurship and engineering students from the University of Oklahoma have helped work on ensuring a clean Oklahoma River for the 2028 Summer Olympics. Their collaboration is thanks to a project designed by faculty at OU's Price College of Business and Gallogly College of Engineering.
A University of Oklahoma data scientist has created a free research tool to facilitate this process. Called ECHO – Evaluation of Chat, Human Behavior, and Outcomes – the open source, low-code platform enables scholars to design and run behavioral experiments involving conversational AI, Web search and human-AI interaction.
