Weather and Society * Integrated Studies (WAS*IS): Developing the next generation of weather researchers and users

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Societal Impacts Program (SIP) is holding a two-part workshop on integrating weather and social science. The workshop will bring together 20 scientists and practitioners who have a vision of changing what WAS to what IS the future of integrated weather and social studies and who will adopt this holistic thinking throughout their careers. This group will be dedicated to moving societal impact efforts from being a cursory “add-on” at the end of major weather research projects and application development to being an integral part of new project development for scientists and practitioners. The two workshop sessions will be devoted to helping participants address challenges and develop methodologies for effective socio-economic applications and to teaching necessary knowledge, skills, and tools with an emphasis on communication strategies and evaluation techniques. This presentation will highlight the progress made during the first workshop session held in November 2005, the objectives for the second session, and the publication and distance learning course objectives for future efforts to integrate weather and social science. The WAS*IS webpage can be viewed at http://www.ral.ucar.edu/was_is.