J. David Neelin

J. David Neelin, professor and vice chair of the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, is an atmospheric physicist and expert on climate change. Neelin specializes in "coupled processes" — the interactions among the atmosphere and oceans and land surfaces and the effect of those interactions on global climate patterns.

Neelin has researched the causes of the El Niño phenomenon — a warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean that periodically influences weather worldwide. Neelin has contributed to reports issued under the auspices of the United Nations and is a part of UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.