Marshall Shepherd elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

UGA's J. Marshall Shepherd has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary society that recognizes and celebrates the excellence of its members and is also an independent research center that convenes leaders from across disciplines, professions and perspectives to address significant challenges.

This highly prestigious national honor comes in the same year that Shepherd, the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

A UGA faculty member since 2006, Shepherd is a leading international expert in weather and climate. He directs the university’s Atmospheric Sciences Program and is a professor in the department of geography, part of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Shepherd has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed scholarly publications, and his research has been supported by agencies such as NASA, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Public engagement has been a key priority for Shepherd, who is frequently sought as an expert on weather, climate and remote sensing. He is the host of The Weather Channel’s award-winning show “Weather Geeks” and is a contributor to Forbes Magazine. Shepherd is frequently asked to advise key leaders at NASA, the White House, Congress, the Department of Defense and officials from foreign countries. He briefed the U.S. Senate on climate change and extreme weather in 2013 and testified before the House Science Committee in 2019.

“Dr. Shepherd follows in the great tradition of prolific and talented expositors of science, the scientific method, and the human condition,” said Alan T. Dorsey, dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “With a gift for communicating his significant scientific expertise on climate and weather in an accessible, clear and compelling fashion, he is inspiring a new generation of budding scientists, both at UGA and across the nation.”

The American Academy of Arts and Scientists was founded in 1780, during the American Revolution, by John Adams, John Hancock and 60 other scholar-patriots who understood that a new republic would require institutions able to gather knowledge and advance learning in service to the public good. It honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”

Shepherd is UGA’s 11th faculty member elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He joins Henry Schaefer, Roberto Docampo and several emeritus faculty members from UGA who have earned this recognition.