Dr. Christopher received his PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from Colorado State University. He also holds a Master's degree in Meteorology from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) and a Master's degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
He is currently Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Earth Science and Director of the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications in the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Dr. Christopher has served in numerous leadership positions including Associate Director of the Earth System Science Center, Chairman of the Atmospheric Science Department, and Dean of the College of Science. He successfully designed a Master's level graduate program in Earth System Science that educates and trains graduate students in new paradigms involving research to decision making.
Dr. Christopher's research interests include satellite remote sensing of clouds and aerosols and their impact on air quality, environment, health, and global and regional climate. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers in national and international journals and has served on numerous national and international committees and science teams.
Dr. Christopher enjoys teaching and has designed and developed undergraduate and graduate level courses with special emphasis on hands-on training using satellite data. In 2011 AGU (Wiley Press) published his book titled Navigating Graduate School and Beyond: A Career Guide for Graduate Students and a Must Read for every Advisor. In 2019 AMS (Chicago Press) published his book titled Navigating Tenure and Beyond: A Guide for Early Career Faculty.
He has won several million dollars from numerous grants and contracts from NASA, NOAA, and other federal agencies for studying earth-atmosphere processes. He has won several awards including the University Award for Research and Creative Achievement in 2006 and NASA New Investigator Award.
He is a citizen of the United States of America.
Pullman, M., M. Maskey, R. Ramachandran, S.A. Christopher, I. Gurung, 2019: Applying Deep Learning to Hail Detection: A Case Study, IEEE Trans. on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 10, 57(12), 10218-10225
Kaulfus, A. S., U. Nair, D. A. Jaffe, S. Christopher, and S. Goodrick, 2017: Biomass burning smoke climatology of the United States: Implications for particulate matter air quality. Environ. Sci. Technol., doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b03292
Contreras,A., J. Zhang, J, Reid, and, S.A. Christopher, A Study of the Longer Term Variation of Aerosol Optical Thickness and Direct Shortwave Aerosol Radiative Effect Trends Using MODIS and CERES, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 13849–13868, 2017 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13849-2017
