Atmospheric Science Professor Gabor Vali

Professor Retires after 37 Years at UW

Nov. 27, 2006 - Atmospheric Science Professor Gabor Vali retired this fall after 37 years of service to the university. His career was distinguished by broad accomplishments, recognition in the atmospheric science community in both the national and international arenas, and he brought great distinction and visibility to the university over those years.

The road leading Gabor to Laramie is in itself an interesting story. Gabor’s childhood years in Hungary were marked by a few years of tranquility followed by years of Nazi persecution, the siege of Budapest, communist class warfare, and five years of absence of his father who was taken to the front as a forced laborer, captured and held as a Soviet prisoner. He was a second-year university student when the 1956 Hungarian uprising broke out, and played a role in those events until he escaped to Austria when Soviet troops re-invaded Hungary. Gabor arrived in Canada early 1957 where he worked as a draftsman while completing the B.Sc. degree via night classes. Then he went on to obtain the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from McGill University while also serving as Lecturer, and then as Assistant Professor. There, he became involved with ice nucleation research both at a fundamental level and as a practical problem in the formation of hailstones in the atmosphere.

Gabor first met Don Veal and his group from Wyoming while participating in hailstorm research in Alberta, Canada, in 1967. The following year he joined the Atmospheric Research Group of the Natural Resources Research Institute. NRRI was the research arm of the College of Engineering that grew into the Department of Atmospheric Resources, the name being changed to Atmospheric Science in 1975. Gabor was instrumental in those steps leading first to departmental status and to the establishment of the first M.S and later the Ph.D. programs in atmospheric science at UW.

Today, in large measure because of Gabor’s inspiration, leadership and drive — along with the hard work of everyone involved in the department -- the scale of research in Atmospheric Science at UW is very ambitious. The research is supported by the ATSC laboratories, the 11,000 ft Elk Mountain Observatory, and aircraft and remote sensing facilities which are matched by very few other university departments in the US. Among his many awards are UW’s G. D. Humphrey Distinguished Faculty Award (1978), College of Engineering Outstanding Graduate Faculty Member Award (1985), Halliburton Education Foundation Award of Excellence (1985), Graduate School recognition for Major Professor of Outstanding Dissertation Award (1989), Fulbright Scholarship (1994-95), and University of Wyoming President's Speaker (2000), and Presidential Awards (2001). He is an External Member of the Hungarian Academy of Science, and Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. Significantly, Gabor mentored 35 M.S. and Ph.D. students during his career here, many of who have gone on to productive and leadership positions of their own.

We wish Gabor and his wife Araceli best wishes for a productive and healthy retirement. Gabor will maintain his residence in Laramie, and plans to pursue research interests in his new role as Emeritus Professor.