Dr. Mark W. Seeley

As a faculty member in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Soil, Water, and Climate from 1978 to 2018, Dr. Seeley participated in thousands of public speaking engagements, meetings, media interviews and person-to-person interactions where he shared his considerable knowledge of the critical relationship between climate and agricultural production.

Although Mark grew up in California, he was destined to return to Minnesota. His great-great grandfather served in the first Minnesota territorial and state legislatures, and his grandfather farmed near Appleton, Minnesota, until 1910 when a drought forced his family to leave for a new life in California. After receiving his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley in 1969, he joined Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) where he met his wife of nearly 50 years, Cindy Bevier. He earned his master’s in meteorology from Northern Illinois University in 1975, and his doctorate in climatology from the University of Nebraska in 1977.

He was hired to the new position of Extension Climatologist at the University of Minnesota in 1978; in 1989 he was awarded tenure with the rank of professor to go along with his title of Extension meteorologist/climatologist. Dr. Seeley managed the Weather and Climate Education Program, as well as doing research and teaching. His primary research emphasis was the use of historical climatological data and networks to identify regional climate trends, climate change signatures, and the associated consequences. In addition, Mark chaired the Kuehnast Lecture Series in atmospheric and climate science.

Mark is one of the most widely recognized and respected University of Minnesota faculty members. He has done weekly commentary on Minnesota Public Radio since fall 1992, where he provides weekly weather and climate commentary on Morning Edition as well as writing Minnesota WeatherTalk, a weekly online newsletter with more than 5,000 subscribers. Dr. Seeley has helped Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) produce award-winning documentaries on Minnesota’s most memorable historical weather events, and on how climate change is affecting the state’s infrastructure and natural resources. He is the author of Minnesota Weather Almanac (1st edition published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2006 and second edition published in 2015), and co-author (with Don Breneman) of Voyageur Skies: Weather and the Wilderness in Minnesota’s National Park (Afton Press, 2011), an award-winning book about the state’s only national park.

Dr. Seeley has been honored with a variety of awards, some of which include: Minnesota Crop Production Retailers Association Outstanding Service Award, December 2017; Minnesota Agri-Growth Council Distinguished Service Award, November 2017; The Siehl Prize in Agriculture for lifetime contributions of knowledge to the agricultural sciences, May 2014; The University President’s Award for Outstanding Community Service, May, 2012; The Scientific Communication and Education Award from Sigma Xi (2001, 2008, 2017); the University of Minnesota Extension Dean and Director’s Award, 2006; the MN/DOT Research Center Partnership Award (for design and use of snow fences), 2003.