New Faculty Welcome: Q&A with Fraser King
January 7, 2026
The Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) is thrilled to welcome Fraser King to our team as an assistant professor. Read on for a brief Q&A with Fraser about his background, research, and what excites him about UW–Madison and AOS.
What is your hometown? Where did you grow up?
I was born and raised in Clinton, Ontario (a small, rural village about three hours north of the US border). A fun fact: Clinton is known as the “home of radar” in Canada due to the nearby radar training base established during WW2, and we even have a large radar dish in our central square as a monument to this period! Radar is now at the core of a lot of my current research, and I wonder if growing up with that story in the background nudged my research direction without my noticing.
What is your educational/professional background?
My undergraduate was in Computer Science with a focus in statistical modeling, and I started off working for a few years as a software engineer in the financial sector. After graduation, however, I realized this wasn’t for me and wanted to do something that I felt could more directly help people. So, I pivoted to problems in applied machine learning looking primarily at snow, which led to a Masters of Science, and then a PhD in remote sensing and machine learning from the University of Waterloo.
What is your field of research, and how did you get into it?
I usually describe my field as existing at the intersection of precipitation, remote sensing, and machine learning (with a special focus on snowfall). I was originally funded on a Canadian Space Agency grant to look at CloudSat snowfall estimates across Arctic regions, and as someone who loves winter and the beauty/complexity of snow particles, I immediately fell in love with it! Snow is also a critical component of the Earth’s water and energy budget that often gets overlooked, and so I am continually thinking about new ways to improve our understanding of how snowfall patterns are changing under a warming global climate.
What are the main goals of your current research?
My current research goals are aligned around better understanding precipitation from local to global scales using data driven methods. More specifically, I see my research falling primarily into four categories:
*Precipitation Retrieval Development
*Trustworthy AI (Model Interpretability)
*Physics-Informed Machine Learning
*Data Visualization
A major part of my research focuses on the responsible use of AI and building trust in models, alongside communicating the science in ways that highlight its importance to stakeholders.
What attracted you to UW–Madison?
I was drawn to UW-Madison for a variety of reasons. At first, it was the university’s deep roots in spaceborne remote sensing, going back to the first Earth-observing geostationary satellite which is really neat! But what excites me now is the chance to work alongside the incredible people in AOS who continue to push the field forward. The connections to SSEC, CIMSS, and the Nelson Institute mean ideas don’t just sit around in our slide decks, but instead, they turn into real collaborations and outreach opportunities to communicate our research to others. Of course, the amazing students are a big draw as well, with many of my favorite past collaborations coming from UW-Madison alumni. And yes, the ice cream too… let’s just say that might’ve been an important deciding factor.
What excites you about the Wisconsin RISE Initiative?
I’m excited to team up with the other RISE hires to tackle hard problems at the intersection of Earth science and AI. This united cohort of new hires gives us a rare chance to pull in diverse expertise from many different disciplines to work on important problems at the forefront of our respective fields. With this shared focus, I feel like we can make meaningful advances in areas that serve both the people of Wisconsin and beyond, and I am really looking forward to this unique collaborative opportunity with everyone starting out here.
Do you have hobbies or interests outside of your work?
When I have the time, I love to play volleyball and chess (not at the same time), and I also like to collect and restore historic maps as a side hobby. Additionally, if anyone has good hiking or biking suggestions for around Madison, please let me know!