Research interests

Neelin's research involves interactions between different pieces of the climate system, starting with ocean-atmosphere interaction and later spreading to some of the other interactions that must be understood as fully coupled processes. Early in his career, a grant program manager, struggling to categorize him as an atmospheric or an oceanic scientist, referred to him as "one of those damned new coupled modelers no one knows where to put".

Tropical climate variability has been a major area of endeavor. El Nino/Southern Oscillation phenomenon, Neelin became fascinated by the Achilles heel of early tropical ocean-atmosphere theory: the complex interaction between the large-scale tropical atmosphere and moist convection. These moist dynamical processes strongly affect and are affected by the ocean surface layer. Several research areas have evolved from this, including moist teleconnections and the tropical precipitation response to global warming...
Selected Awards
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2012-present
Fellow, American Geophysical Union, 2012-present
Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 2007-2008
Professeur Invité, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris May-June 2008
Fellow, American Meteorological Society, 2003; Fellow, Royal Meteorological Society, 2003
NSF Special Creativity Award 1999-2000
C. L. Meisinger Award of the American Meteorological Society, 1996
Houghton Lectureship, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT, 1994–95
Presidential Young Investigator Award 1991-1996
Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Award, 1983