The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) invites applications and nominations for the position of Director of the Illinois Three-Dimensional (3D) Mesonet. This position offers an exceptional opportunity to lead a first-of-its-kind, statewide, multi-sector environmental observing network designed to transform weather, climate, and environmental monitoring and decision-making across Illinois and the Nation.

About the Illinois 3D Mesonet 

The Illinois 3D Mesonet is a transformative partnership among the Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences (CliMAS), the Prairie Research Institute (PRI), and several other campus and external partners including the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), the Illinois Innovation Network (IIN), and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

The 3D Mesonet represents a new generation of environmental observing systems — combining surface, subsurface, and autonomous drone-based atmospheric observations up to 8,000 feet. It will integrate these data with a federated statewide environmental data portal and new decision-support tools that benefit stakeholders in public safety/emergency management, agriculture, transportation, power utilities, K-12 and higher education, public health, communications, urban planning, manufacturing, and research. When completed, it will be the Nation’s first fully three-dimensional, autonomous mesonet.

Lead the creation of a first-of-its-kind, statewide, multi-sector environmental observing network designed to transform weather, climate, and environmental monitoring and decision-making across Illinois and the Nation.