Dr. Justin Stachnik

Dr. Justin Stachnik is an Associate Program Scientist in the Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Focus Area at NASA Headquarters. His primary duties include leading and assisting review panels, managing existing awards, interacting with PIs and science teams, and supporting Focus Area Program Managers. He also coordinates the Headquarters effort for the Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics thematic area within the interagency Satellite Needs Working Group, among other efforts.

Prior to his appointment at NASA Headquarters, Justin spent more than seven years on the faculty of the University of Kansas (2016-2024). There he led the Clouds, Climate, and Precipitation group where he and his students researched tropical weather and climate variability using remote sensing and complementary datasets. Justin’s expertise includes the dynamics and variability of the large-scale Hadley circulation and Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), convectively coupled and tropical easterly waves, diabatic heating from low-latitude cloud and precipitating systems, and the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO).

Justin completed a joint postdoc with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and University of California, Los Angeles (2013-2016). His training is in meteorology and atmospheric science with a BS (2005) and MS (2007) from Purdue University and PhD (2013) from Texas A&M University. As a former professor, Justin is passionate about higher education and developing the next generation of Earth scientists. He is also a strong proponent for emphasizing the broader impacts of basic and applied scientific research.