Jerry W Wegiel

Research Interests

Numerical Weather Prediction, Land Surface Modeling, and Data Assimilation.

NASA GSFC Land Information System (LIS)

Hydrology / Water Cycle

Scientific liaison and interagency coordinator for development, test, and integration of the Land Information System (LIS) at HQ Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA). Partner agencies include NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab (CRREL), U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center (ERDC), National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and the academic community (domestic and international).

Support Scientist IV

SAIC - HQ Air Force Weather Agency 101 Nelson Drive Offutt AFB, NE 68113-1023 402-232-4438 jerry.wegiel.ctr@us.af.mil

November 2013 - February 2026

Scientific liaison and interagency coordinator for development, test, and integration of the Land Information System (LIS) at HQ Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA). Partner agencies include NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab (CRREL), U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center (ERDC), National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and the academic community (domestic and international).

Lead Systems Engineer and Supervisor Principal Investigator, Global Hydro Information (GHI) for NASA/GSFC Hydrological Sciences Laboratory

SSAI - Offutt AFB, NE

February 2026 - Present

Scientific liaison and interagency coordinator for design, development, test, integration, and transition-to-operations of the Land Information System (LIS) at 557 Weather Wing (formerly, HQ Air Force Weather Agency [AFWA]).

Adjunct Professor

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA - Lincoln, NE

October 2024 - Present

Providing policy, scientific, and technical advice to Director, School of Natural Resources, faculty, and staff. Volunteer responsibilities include: (1) Serving as UNL’s representative to ‘Heartland Environmental Alliance for Resilience and Transformation’ (H.E.A.R.T.) consortium since 18 Nov 2024; and (2) As a member of SNR’s Advisory Board

President and CEO

NEBRASKA CENTER FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH AND ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP, LLC - 6169 South 178th Street Omaha, NE 68135

September 2013 - November 2013

Providers of professional and technical services in the areas of engineering, business development and the environmental sciences.

Program Manager III

RAYTHEON COMPANY - 7101 Mercy Road Suite 900 Omaha, NE 68106

January 2013 - July 2013

Responsible for the financial, technical and schedule management of a Corporate research and development enterprise campaign.

Director of Business Development

PRAIRIE VENTURES MANAGEMENT, LLC - 2323 South 171st Street Omaha, NE 68130

June 2013 - September 2013

Responsibilities include identifying, assessing and developing new business opportunities for Prairie Ventures' businesses to remain competitive and grow according to plan. Work collaboratively with other Prairie Ventures Directors to obtain the goals of the organization.

Business Development Manager III, II, and I

RAYTHEON COMPANY - 7101 Mercy Road Suite 900 Omaha, NE 68106

January 2007 - February 2013

 Serve as a strategic driver providing leadership in evaluating new business opportunities, deriving strategies, tactics and action plans for an integrated team of professionals/functions. Direct cross-functional teams and managers in establishing growth strategies, deepening client relationships, conducting opportunity and risk analysis, and advising operations leadership on positioning to capture future Environmental Intelligence/Solutions opportunities with customers in Department of Defense, Civil, commercial and R&D markets (domestic and international).

 Leverage strong technical and business background as the Sensing Enterprise Campaign IPT Lead. Responsible for the financial, technical and schedule management of a corporate research and development enterprise campaign.

 Define product concept and positioning and direct the development of marketing collateral materials compliant with the specific technical/legal requirements of each prospect.

 Serve as a key advisor, coordinate with senior executive staff and key stakeholders across the enterprise to provide support and leadership for corporate sponsored events including: meetings with key industry partners and technical reviews.

 Develop new business target leads and nurture opportunities through long-term positioning and opportunity assessment phases of the bid/acquisition process.

o Manage a pipeline of 15-20 opportunities consisting DOD dept of commerce, FAA, and international Organizations; overachieved goals by securing $10M in bookings.

o Guide a multidisciplined team in productization of new disruptive technologies (e.g., uFrame™): an open source enterprise service bus-based SOA framework for data fusion).

o Serve as subject matter expert for environmental systems, multi-service ISR-E requirements and programs, and defense, civil and international policy considerations.

o Connect the dots between unsatisfied but validated customer requirements and internal R&D investments and turn them into programs of record.

 Develop and managed IIS DCMS SEMS-Omaha technology and strategic business plans. Develop interfaces with other industry teamates and develop strategic competitor assessments in the environmental solutions market.

 Derived and presented technical outbrief of Raytheon study contract to Prince Turki bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz and Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) leadership team, 6 June 2010.

Support operations on development and review of capture strategies and proposals for major environmental solutions opportunities.

 Recognized as an innovative leader, developed and trademarked a Universal framework for a full open source solution. Helped combine assessments and strategies of other Mission Area Managers for service-specific environmental market areas into an integrated strategy and market assessment.

 Recipient of the Peak Performance Award, 2007.

Program Manager I, Analysis and Forecast IPT Lead

RAYTHEON COMPANY - 7101 Mercy Road Suite 900 Omaha, NE 68106

May 2006 - December 2006

 Maintained full accountability for the daily operations of a major weather program; core areas of responsibility included: preparation of proposals, statements of work and specifications, estimation of product/service costs, and negotiation and administration of contracts.

 Directed the performance of program functional task elements such as procurement, engineering, quality control, logistics and administration.

 Maintained key marketing/sales contacts with both domestic and foreign civilian and military personnel. Supported appropriate pursuits and proposal activities particularly in weather (terrestrial and space), weather related, weather support, weather field support, and deployed weather systems.

Chief, Numerical Weather Prediction

HQ Air Force Weather Agency - HQ AFWA 101 Nelson Drive Offutt AFB, NE 68113-1023

April 2005 - April 2006

Developed and managed integrated NWP modeling technology roadmap for all of USAF and USA. Strategically leveraged extensive modeling & simulation skills honed over the years. Led an integrated team of 50 advanced degreed military and civilian scientists and programmers; guided project design, coding, testing, documentation, and implementation of meteorological software on state-of-the-art supercomputers at one the Department of Defense’s (DoD) largest computing centers.

Personally derived and executed approach of modeling, simulation, and analysis activities within and across projects and programs, including the visualization and validation and verification (V & V) approach associated with development of the MM5, WRF and NOAH LSM modeling systems.

AFWA WRF Coordinator (Appointed Interagency Position)

HQ AFWA - HQ AFWA 101 Nelson Drive Offutt AFB, NE 68113-1023

April 2000 - April 2006

Developed and executed a $3.5M multiple inter-agency Statements of Work (SOW) and Contract Date Requirement List (CDRL) for technical improvements from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Forecast Systems Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Environmental Technology Laboratory, University California-Davis, Air Force Research Laboratory, Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc, and Barron Advanced Meteorological Services.

o Authored a technology roadmap for state-of-the-art supercomputers at one the Department of Defense’s (DoD) largest computing centers.

o Increased relevancy of HQ AFWA by designing and establishing a Classified Model Processing System (CMPS) to meet validated but yet unsatisfied AF/XOW requirements.

 Establishment of CMPS fulfilled nearly a 50-year-old validated requirement.

o Led a team of advanced data assimilation experts in the design, testing, and operational implementation of DoD's 1st 3-Dimensional VARiational data assimilation system.

Chief, Fine Scale Models Team

United State Air Force - HQ AFWA 101 Nelson Drive Offutt AFB, NE 68113-1023

November 1999 - April 2005

 Core areas of responsibility entailed leading a team of 7 advanced degreed military and civilian scientists and programmers. Guided project design, coding, testing, documentation, and implementation of meteorological software on state-of-the-art supercomputers at one the Department of Defense’s (DoD) largest computing centers.

Notable Contributions:

 Integrated the latest generation of weather forecast models into DoD operations.

 Directed the generation of critical war-fighter mission-planning tools and tailored weather products for daily operational support.

 Provided real-time repositioning of high-resolution weather forecast models for Air Force and Army locations worldwide.

 Urbanized HPAC for OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, 5-7 Apr 2003

 Ensured the uninterrupted flow of critical forecasts supporting DoD contingencies and exercises.

 Coordinated with the Global Theater Weather Analysis and Prediction System (GTWAPS) Program Manager on a daily basis to ensure timely development, testing, and implementation of four Interim Operational Capability milestones.

 Through the GTWAPS Program Manager, managed the priorities of 20+ contractor personnel writing, testing, documenting, and delivering software to the government.

University Corporation for Atmospheric Science (UCAR) Visiting Scientist

UCAR - HQ AFWA 101 Nelson Drive Offutt AFB, NE 68113-1023

November 1998 - April 1999

 Worked to improve performance of AFWA's MM5 fine scale NWP modeling system. Self-trained in all facets of the operational AFWA-MM5 modeling system including pre-processing, execution, and post-processing.

 Conducted sensitivity experiments using NOAA/FSL's Localized Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS) using RAOBs, surface, satellite, aircraft, conventional and other non-conventional data.

 Assisted in the transition of new versions of LAPS code into Air Force operations.

 Devised strategy to provide real-time re-locatable MM5 nests for operational tropical cyclone track and intensity forecasts.

 Studied atmospheric conditions associated with genesis of Ethiopian Mesoscale Convective Systems and their impacts on climate.

 Conducted sensitivity studies associated with tuning of the Charnock constant to reduce low-level moisture bias over large water bodies.

 Revitalized a dormant Weather Explorer Post 999 of the Boy Scouts Association. Enhanced the minds of tomorrow's scientists through education and experiences in the fields of astronomy and atmospheric science.

• University of Nebraska-Lincoln representative to ‘Heartland Environmental Alliance for Resilience and Transformation’ (H.E.A.R.T.) consortium 18 Nov 2024 - present. • Member, UNL School of Natural Resources (SNR) Advisory Board, 18 Nov 2024 - present. • NASA/GSFC representative to the Inter Agency Water Working Group (IWWG), April 2022-present. • NASA/GSFC representative to METSAT/SBEM Working Group (formerly, METSAT Integration Working Group), November 2018-present. • Member, USAF Life Cycle

1986 - Present

 Infrastructure Development for Regional Coupled Modeling Environments

Programming Environment and Training (PET) - CWO 002/FY03 - DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program - Awarded: 2003-10-01

Dates: 2003-10-01  - 2006-09-30

Amount $750,000.00

Joint Ensemble Forecast System (JEFS)

DHPI 060222 - DoD Dedicated High Performance Computing Project Investment (DHPI) - Awarded: 2006-10-01

Dates:  - 

Amount $2,400,000.00

Joint Operational Test Bed for the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) Modeling Framework

Dedicated Distributed Center (DDC) - DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program - Awarded: 2004-10-01

Dates:  - 

Amount $3,500,000.00

Scalable Weather and Research Forecast (WRF) Model Development

CHSSI-CWO-06 - DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program - Awarded: 2000-10-01

Dates:  - 

Amount $1,500,000.00

Battlespace Environments Institute (BEI)

Common High Performance Computing Software Support Initiative (CHSSI) - DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program - Awarded: 2004-08-15

Dates:  - 

Amount $11,500,000.00