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Bio

Born in Brooklyn, Walt Robinson grew up on Long Island and in Maryland. He studied physics at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with B.S. and M.S. degrees in 1977. Following a year as a cosmic radiation observer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and some subsequent travel, he entered graduate school at Columbia University, where he completed his PhD in 1985. His dissertation research, carried out under the supervision of Dr. David Rind at the Goddard Institute of Space Studies, addressed the dynamics of planetary waves in the stratosphere. Following three years as a post-doc at the University of Washington, he joined the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois, where he was sequentially assistant, associate and full professor, with an affiliate appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering. In 2006 Robinson moved to the National Science Foundation, where he served as a program director in the Climate and Large-scale Dynamics Program. He came to NC State in 2009 and served as department head from 2011 to 2016. He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

Robinson’s research addresses the large-scale dynamics of Earth’s atmosphere in the context of a changing climate.

He is co-director of the Master’s Program in Climate Change and Society, co-chair of the College of Sciences Community Climate Committee, and Senior Research Mentor in MEAS. He is  (effective July 1, 2025) Chair of the NC State Faculty and he serves as Publications Commissioner of the American Meteorological Society.

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Publications

• Supplemental Data - Patterns and Predictors of Storm-driven Terrigenous FDOM Export from the Neuse River Basin V1.0 , Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (2026)
• Supplemental Data - Patterns and Predictors of Storm-driven Terrigenous FDOM Export from the Neuse River Basin V1.0 , Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (2026)
• The role of Rossby wave dynamics in spatially compounding heatwaves in mid-summer 2023 , Environmental Research Letters (2025)
• The role of Rossby wave dynamics in spatially compounding heatwaves in mid-summer 2023 , (2025)
• Extratropical Cyclones and Storm Tracks on a Warming Earth , KNMI (2024)
• Hemisphere-Dependent Impacts of ENSO and Atmospheric Eddies on Hadley Circulation , Journal of Climate (2024)
• Summer Storm Tracks , Institute of the Environment (IVM) (2024)
• Atmospheric blocking (or persistent anomalies): an inevitable outcome of macroturbulence , Ocean University of China (2023)
• Climate change & extreme events , Penick Village (2023)
• Climate change & extreme events , Osher Life-long Learning Institute (2023)

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