Ali Tokay
Research Prof
Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology
Off Campus C427; Bldg. 33, NASA GSFC
Education
Ph D University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1993
MS Saint Louis University 1988
BS Istanbul Technical University 1984
+1 301 614 6140
About
Dr. Tokay is an atmospheric scientist and meteorological engineering by training and conducted numerous field campaigns under the umbrella of NASA’s precipitation measurement mission. Dr. Tokay published 40+ peer-reviewed journals and served as a anonymous reviewer for 20+ different journals and NASA, NSF, and DOE proposals. Dr. Tokay was the co-chair of the 34th American Meteorological Society (AMS) radar meteorology conference and co-chair of 2016 European conference on radar meteorology and hydrology. He was the chair of AMS radar meteorology committee (2016-2020) and is associate editor of Journal Hydrometeorology. Dr. Tokay is a member of the Center for Space Sciences and Technology (CRESST II) consortium promotion review committee. Dr. Tokay is a recipient of the 2025 UMBC Research Faculty Excellence award.
Research Interests
Dr. Tokay focuses on precipitation measurements including microphysics, spatial variability, and measurement accuracy. Dr. Tokay was a principal investigator during a series of field campaigns under NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and Global Precipitation Measurement Mission. He is an associate member of NASA Precipitation Science Team.
Teaching Interests
Weather and Climate (Geography and Environmental Systems 311). This class includes fundamentals of atmospheric processes including radiative transfer, cloud physics, large and meso-scale phenomena, severe weather, and weather forecasting. Dr. Tokay was an advisor/co-advisor of ten MS and PhD. students. He also mentored 30+ summer undergraduate and graduate interns.
Research In Progress
Mahone, Connor. Non-Scholarly (Writing Results). Jun 1, 2024 – May 26, 2024
Presentations
Rebstock, Amalie (Author & Presenter). 104th AMS annual meeting. Demonstration. "Evation of Precipitation Amount algorithms in Mid-Atlantic and Southern New England," American Meteoorlogical Society. (Jan 27, 2025).
Mahone, Connor (Author & Presenter). 104th AMS annual meeting. "Evaluation of Precipitation Phase Algorithms in Southern New England," American Meteorological Society. (Jan 27, 2025).