Teaching and researching how the atmosphere works — weather, climate, air chemistry — while training students who'll forecast, model, and study the air around us. Equal parts educator and working scientist.
The week tends to braid teaching, research, and grant-writing — lecturing on dynamics or climate one day, running model simulations or advising grad students the next. You work on the academic calendar, with research progress squeezed between teaching and service. The craft is in two places at once: explaining the atmosphere clearly and pushing the science forward.
The harder reality is chasing grants to keep research funded while carrying a full teaching and advising load. The tenure path is competitive and slow, and the field's relevance to climate brings its own public scrutiny. Institutions differ: a big research university prizes funded projects and publications, a teaching-focused one leans on the classroom far more.
It tends to fit someone fascinated by weather and climate, patient with academia. If you want fast results or dislike grant cycles and committees, the institutional grind can wear. But if you love both the science and the teaching of it — and care about training people to understand a changing atmosphere — the work tends to feel genuinely meaningful.
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Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Teaching and researching how the atmosphere works — weather, climate, air chemistry — while training students who'll forecast, model, and study the air around us. Equal parts educator and working scientist.
Median pay for an Atmospheric Sciences Professor is about $101K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $53K to $199K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Speaking, Instructing, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, and Writing.
Most people in this role hold a master's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 2.6% through 2034, with roughly 11,480 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Environmental Engineering Professor, Research Professor, and Geology Teacher.
Still figuring out what you want to become
when you grow up?