Susan K. Avery is Director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Colorado. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1978. Her personal research program utilizes ground-based Doppler radar techniques for observing physical processes in the atmosphere. Current and specific research topics include studies of the impact of wind profiler data on numerical weather products; upper atmosphere tides and gravity waves; tropical wave propagation; and precipitation structure using multi-frequency radar measurements.

As Director of CIRES, Avery, who received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1978, oversees a diverse research agenda in Earth System Science. She has helped form a regional assessment program that examines impacts of climate variability on water in the interior West. This program involves an interdisciplinary team of natural scientists, social scientists, and policy researchers. Avery's teaching includes courses in radar science and technique, geophysical data analysis, and policy responses to climate variability.

Avery serves on a number of national committees and boards. Currently she serves as President elect of the American Meteorological Society; past-Chair of United States National Committee for the International Union of Radio Science (USNC-URSI); Scientific Discipline Representative and URSI Representative to SCOSTEP; Member of the National Research Council's Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC); and member of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges Board on Oceans and Atmospheres. A Fellow of IEEE and AMS, Avery is the author of more than 65 publications in refereed literature.