Matthew A. Lazzara

Dr. Matthew A. Lazzara is a Senior Scientist and Research Meteorologist at the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (AMRC), Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW–Madison). He is presently the Principal Investigator of the Antarctic Automatic Weather Station Program, Antarctic Meteorological Research Center and Arctic Satellite Composite Project. In the AMRC, Lazzara supports and maintains the generation and archive of Antarctic weather data, including the Antarctic satellite composite images and the processing of SSEC’s Automatic Weather Station (AWS) data collected by the AWS network in Antarctica. Additionally, he investigates meteorological phenomena in the Antarctic and conducts educational outreach activities with schools and organizations. He has worked on site at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and at UW–Madison from 1995 to the present.

Matthew Lazzara is Weather and Climate faculty member and Chair of the Department of Physical Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences, at Madison Area Technical College. There he teaches weather and climate.

As a Research Specialist at SSEC from 1991 to 1999, Lazzara supported users, tested software, and trained and demonstrated SSEC’s Man computer Interactive Data Access System. He is the past Chairman of the McIDAS Advisory Committee, coordinating input from the McIDAS Users Group to the McIDAS project.

Matthew Lazzara graduated from Lyndon State College (LSC) (Now Northern Vermont University – Lyndont) in Vermont in 1991 with a B.S. in Meteorology and minors in Mathematics and Physics. While at LSC, Lazzara organized weather data for an electronic weather bulletin board, maintained the school’s meteorology lab, served as a weather intern at WLNE Channel 6, in Providence, RI, and worked at WWLR FM radio in Lyndonville, Vermont. He also substitute taught science at the King Philip Regional High School, in Wrentham, MA during and after college.

Lazzara also holds a M.S. in Atmospheric Science from the UW–Madison, with a thesis on Atmospheric Predictability during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere/Couple Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA/COARE). He earned a Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences with a minor in Curriculum and Instruction from the UW–Madison. This thesis research focused on a diagnostic study of Antarctic fog.

Lazzara is currently a member of the American Meteorological Society, National Weather Association, Mount Washington Observatory, American Geophysical Union, current President and past Secretary of the International Commission on Polar Meteorology which is a part of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences/International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, and a member of Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Expert Group on Operational Meteorology in the Antarctic.

Matthew Lazzara is married to Cara Gay Lazzara. They have a son, Noah, and daughter, Jane. His interests and hobbies include fishing, water skiing, camping, and poetry.