John Knox Receives 2025 AOS Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement
December 17, 2025
The Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) at UW–Madison is thrilled to announce that Dr. John Knox has been selected to receive the 2025 AOS Distinguished Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement.
Knox is the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of Geography at the University of Georgia (UGA), where he has been since 2001. He received his PhD in 1996 from AOS, followed by an Earth Observing System (EOS) postdoc fellowship at Columbia University and NASA/GISS. Before joining UGA, he was an assistant professor of geography and meteorology at Valparaiso University. His research interests focus on understanding the dynamics of weather and climate.
A tireless educator, Knox has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to his students’ success throughout his career. He has received a teaching-related award at every institution he has taught and has over 20 in total. Notable awards include the CASE/Carnegie Foundation Georgia Professor of the Year (2014), the Edward N. Lorenz Teaching Excellence Award (2020) from the American Meteorological Society, and a Felton Jenkins Jr. Hall of Fame Faculty Award from the University System of Georgia (2024).
His passion for teaching was one of the reasons he was drawn to AOS. “I chose UW–Madison AOS for graduate school over other programs because it had the best tradition of producing faculty at both small colleges and large universities,” says Knox. “I knew I wanted to be a teacher because of the example of my honors mentor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Ada Long.”
His impact on students goes far beyond those he has taught, too: Knox, Steve Ackerman (AOS professor emeritus), and Tom Whittaker are collaborators on a 25-year-and-counting introductory textbook project, Meteorology: An Interactive Understanding of the Atmosphere.
Even with all his accomplishments and accolades, Knox retains a humility and sense of humor that no doubt make him so beloved by students. “I’m frankly shocked to be included on a list of winners that includes so many immortals of our field,” he says. “I’ll make sure to nominate a more deserving person next year!”
The award will be formally conferred during the AOS Robock Alumni Reception at the Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Houston on Tuesday evening, January 27, 2026.