Dennis Hartmann, professor of Atmospheric Sciences in the College of the Environment, has agreed to serve as interim dean from July 1 until Maya Tolstoy begins as the Maggie Walker Dean on Jan. 1, 2022.

Hartmann served as interim dean of the College when it formed in 2009 until July 1, 2010 when Dean Lisa Graumlich began her term.

As an atmospheric scientist who studies the atmosphere’s role in climate variability and change, and how the atmosphere interacts with the ocean in a changing climate, Hartmann’s principal areas of expertise are atmospheric dynamics, remote sensing, and mathematical and statistical techniques for data analysis. He has been an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow, and has received a number of awards throughout his career, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal and the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal from the American Meteorological Society. Hartmann is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

As announced a few weeks ago, Tolstoy will join the University of Washington in January from Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where she is a marine geophysicist specializing in seafloor earthquakes and volcanoes.

Thank you to Hartmann for taking on this work once again, and thank you to Dean Graumlich whose term as dean concludes June 30.