Weather Center

Lourdes B. Avilés, Ph.D.

Lourdes Avilés has been a meteorology professor at Plymouth State University since 2004 and is currently department chair for meteorology, climate studies, and physics, and the director of the Computational, Applied, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences (CAMPS) Academic Unit. She has a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus. Dr. Avilés is a trustee for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and has served in a variety of national committees, including the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Board on Higher Education, and the (formerly named) AMS Board on Women and Minorities. She is currently an academic ambassador for the AMS Committee on Hispanic and Latinx Advancement (CHALA). For many years, she chaired the AMS History of Atmospheric and Related Sciences committee and was the annual meeting History Symposium chairperson. She is also a trustee of the Mount Washington Observatory. Over the years, Dr. Avilés has done research in tropical meteorology and air quality, and she teaches upper-level courses in dynamic and physical meteorology, tropical weather and climate, and air quality, among others. She has written an award-winning book on the science and history of the Great New England Hurricane of 1938, which was the subject of her research for many years. More recently, she has been working on a textbook on the science and history of the Optics of the Atmosphere (blue skies, rainbows, halos, etc.). She lives in Campton, New Hampshire with her family and highly enjoys nature photography and choral singing.