Melissa Breeden Receives 2025 AOS Early Career Alumni Award
December 17, 2025
The Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) at UW–Madison is thrilled to announce that Dr. Melissa Breeden has been selected to receive the 2025 AOS Early Career Alumni Award.
The award recognizes alumni who in their early career have made impactful contributions to the atmospheric and oceanic sciences and community, or the general welfare of society.
Breeden is a research physical scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Physical Sciences Laboratory. Previous positions include a postdoc researcher at the UW–Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), a NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoc fellowship, and a research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). She received her BS (2013) and PhD (2018) from AOS.
Her strong research background is evident, but it’s the impact of Breeden’s work that really stands out. In 2021, she developed a modeling framework to produce sub-seasonal outlooks of temperature and precipitation designed for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which is currently used to mitigate acute food insecurity. She recently completed a project to model seasonal outlooks to improve wildfire threat forecasting, resulting in a product that directly aids decision-makers at the National Interagency Fire Center. She is also an active mentor to students at all levels, most recently guiding a high school student to a 2025 NASA Earth System Science Project Award.
Breeden credits her time at AOS for building the skills needed for professional success. “Without a doubt, the rigorous training I received from AOS was crucial for the research on subseasonal-to-seasonal prediction I conduct now,” she says. “I deliver monthly forecast presentations spanning 35 counties to food security analysts, a task that requires using everything I learned from Professor Jon Martin at countless Weather Watch discussions. I still use the empirical modeling techniques I learned from Professor Dan Vimont, and so many more skills gleaned from AOS faculty and classmates. I will always be grateful for my time at AOS.”
The award will be formally conferred at a to-be-determined date in 2026 at the Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences building, in Madison, Wisconsin.