Lt Col Casey L. Zoellick, PhD
Deputy Department Head/Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Science
Lt Col Casey L. Zoellick is Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Science, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB), Ohio. In this capacity, he advises Department of Defense-relevant student thesis research as well as develops and teaches three graduate-level courses. Additionally, he engages key stakeholders to procure funding and ensure research priorities are aligned to the operational needs of Air Force weather and other research sponsors. He currently specializes in applying traditional numerical weather prediction, artificial intelligence, and machine learning techniques to improve forecasts for extreme and other operationally relevant weather phenomena including downslope windstorms, severe thunderstorms, and atmospheric transport and dispersion applications.
Lt Col Zoellick earned his commission into the Air Force through the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 2011 upon graduating from Iowa State University and has served over 14 years on active duty as a Weather and Environmental Sciences Officer (WESO). Throughout his career, he has served in numerous WESO assignments including flight command in weather support to intercontinental ballistic missile operations and standing up a flight for tailored forecast products and data science applications for the Air Force’s global weather model. He also led airfield and mission weather services when deployed to Southwest Asia as a Weather Flight Commander in 2015 in support of Operation INHERENT RESOLVE and again in 2020 to Afghanistan in Support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s RESOLUTE SUPPORT mission that included the retrograde of Kandahar Airfield. Prior to his current position and Ph.D. program, he was the Executive Officer to the 2d Weather Group Commander, Offutt AFB, Neb.
Education
Ph.D., Atmospheric Science, Colorado State Univeristy, 2025
M.S., Atmospheric Science, Air Force Institue of Technology (AFIT), 2019
B.S., Meteorology, Iowa State Univeristy, 2011
Awards
- 16th Weather Squadron Company Grade Officer (CGO) of the Year, 2019
- Dean’s Award for Best Thesis – Department of Engineering Physics, 2019
- Air Force Weather CGO of the Year, 2016
- Air Force Global Strike Command Weather CGO of the Year, 2016
- Air Force Global Strike Command Weather CGO of the Year, 2014
- Phi Beta Kappa Induction, 2011
- Iowa Governor’s Cup, 2011
- Senior Research Honorable Mention, 2010