Research Meteorologist

daniel.nietfeld@colostate.edu

Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere
Colorado State University
1375 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1375

Daniel has an extensive background and expertise in leading people and programs aimed at improving the weather enterprise, with wide-ranging experience in operations, R&D, management, leadership, teaching, mentoring, and partnership building. While at the NOAA/Global Systems Laboratory for 9 years, he served in several positions, including the Deputy Director (Acting), the Chief of the Weather Informatics and Decision Support (WIDS) Division, the Chief of the Weather Information Systems Evolution (WISE) Branch, and the Liaison to the National Weather Service. His background is rooted in integrating science (physical science and social science) into operational meteorology. Before joining GSL in 2016, Daniel worked for 25 years at the National Weather Service (NWS), including 15 years as a Science and Operations Officer (SOO). As a SOO, Daniel trained forecasters and infused cutting-edge research into operational decision support, forecasting, and warning services. Between his tenure as a SOO and coming to GSL, Daniel did two details, first at the NWS Weather Prediction Center (WPC) as the Development and Training Branch Chief and then with the NESDIS/GOES-R Program as the Deputy Team Lead for Product Readiness and Operations. His background also includes a number of leadership, policy, and training activities, as well as collaborations with academic, private, and international partners. Daniel taught for 13 years as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Creighton University, where he taught classes in Mesoscale Meteorology, Severe Storms Meteorology, Radar Remote Sensing, Satellite Remote Sensing, and NWP. He has a passion for understanding the weather-related information needs of decision-makers and conducting O2R2O to meet those needs through research, development, and operationalizing relevant policies, tools, systems, and applications. He established NOAA’s Fire Weather Testbed and GSL’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Branch, and oversaw these activities and the R&D of some of NOAA’s most cutting-edge weather-related technologies.