James C. McWilliams

James C. McWilliams is a professor at the UCLA Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

Early life McWilliams was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and attended high school in Tulsa. McWilliams received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Caltech in 1968. In 1969 and 1971, he received a M.S. and Ph.D respectively from Harvard University. He has authored the textbook Fundamentals of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics for use by students who have an intermediate to advanced knowledge of physics and the Earth's fluid environment.

Research James C. McWilliams primarily does research in computational modeling of the Earth's oceans and atmospheres. One of McWilliam's most influential papers was a paper written in 1990 titled "Isopycnal mixing in ocean circulation models", in which together with Peter Gent they proposed a subgrid-scale form of mesoscale eddy mixing on isopyncal surfaces for use in non-eddy resolving ocean circulation models.

Selected publications

Awards Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2001) National Academy of Sciences (2002)