Richard Edwin "Dick" Hallgren (March 15, 1932 - November 5, 2023) was an American

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

. He was a former executive director of the

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is a scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance the atmosph ...

(AMS) and held several senior positions with the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

(NOAA), including the director of the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

, director of World Weather Systems and federal coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research. He directed the National Weather Service from 1979-1988 and was the executive director of the American Meteorological Society starting in 1988. Hallgren's contributions to meteorology have been recognized with several awards, including the Arthur S. Fleming Award, the

Department of Commerce Gold Medal Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

, the Charles F. Brooks Award and the International Meteorological Organization Prize of the

World Meteorological Organization The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology an ...

. He earned his PhD and BS in

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

from the

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

. He is the author of the book ''A Safer Future: Reducing The Impacts Of Natural Disasters.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallgren, Richard Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences alumni American meteorologists National Weather Service Year of birth missing (living people) Department of Commerce Gold Medal