Forecasting the Future: Tom Skilling & Don Wuebbles Talk Climate Resilience

Tom Skilling, WGN-TV chief meteorologist emeritus, appeared on WGN Evening News, WGN News at Nine, and WGN News at Ten. He celebrated his 45th anniversary with WGN-TV in August 2023 and officially retired from WGN-TV at the end of February 2024.

Starting his successful career at the unheard-of age of 14, Tom was hired by WKKD Radio in Aurora, IL, while attending West Aurora High School. He joined WLXT-TV three years later, while going to school during the day.

In 1970, Tom moved to Madison, WI to study meteorology and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, while continuing to work in radio and television. Tom’s first television job was at age 18 in Aurora, IL, at WLXT-Channel 60. Then on to WKOW-TV (ABC affiliate) and WTSO Radio in Madison, WI before going to work for WITI-TV Milwaukee from 1975-1978, where he was rated the city’s #1 meteorologist.

Tom joined WGN-TV on August 13, 1978.  He has established himself as a respected meteorologist both locally and nationally, known for his in-depth reports, enthusiasm, and use of state-of-the-art technology. For over 30 years, Skilling was chief meteorologist on WGN Midday News as well as later newscasts. Tom Skilling has been awarded with four honorary doctorates from Northern Illinois University, Lewis University, St. Mary’s of Minnesota, and Aurora University.

In early 2004, Tom helped coordinate the Tribune Weather Center, which combined the meteorology resources and expertise of WGN-TV, CLTV and the Chicago Tribune in one location. Starting 1997, Skilling was the driving force behind the Chicago Tribune’s weather page. Among the elements in the column was “Ask Tom Why,” in which Tom took viewers’ questions and answered the “why” behind the weather. In October 2008, Tom and the WGN-TV Weather Center started providing weather reports to WGN Radio. He also received an immense response for the WGNtv.com weather blog.

For over 38 years, Tom Skilling hosted a Tornado and Severe Storms Seminar at Fermilab. As host of the event, Skilling welcomed the ‘who’s who’ in the severe weather research and forecast community, including famed University of Chicago tornado researcher Dr. Ted Fujita. The Fermilab programs were attended by thousands over the years and streamed to even larger audiences online.

Tom has spoken and continues to speak at numerous events throughout the Chicagoland area discussing climate change. Some examples of his advocacy efforts include:  hosting a talk to 200 area science teachers in Downers Grove, participating in a climate conference in Naperville, heading to Palatine to address an Energy Expo sponsored by the Sierra Club, and working with the Chicago Mayor’s office several times. He emceed a conference of local mayors from across the Chicagoland community addressing climate change, as well as an awards event for mayors recognizing environment efforts in member cities (mayors and their representatives for the world’s 40 biggest cities which included the mayors of Paris and Mexico City and the Deputy Mayors of New York, Los Angeles, and Washington DC).

Tom was awarded the Illinois Broadcasters Association (IBA) as their “2018 Broadcast Pioneer” honoree. From recording a podcast with former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel about climate change to emceeing events, Tom has maintained a very busy schedule.

Donald J. Wuebbles is the Harry E. Preble Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Illinois. He is also a special advisor to the President of the University of Illinois and a Distinguished Scientist with the University’s Discovery Partners Institute. He is also Director of Climate Science for Earth Knowledge. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Wuebbles was Assistant Director with the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the Executive Office of the President (with President Obama). Dr. Wuebbles has two degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, in Atmospheric Science. He also led the development of the School of Earth, Society, and Environment at the University, and was its first director. Dr. Wuebbles is an expert in atmospheric physics and chemistry, with over 600 scientific publications related to the Earth’s climate, air quality and stratospheric ozone. He also provides analyses and development of metrics for translating science to policy and societal responses. He has been a leader in many international and national scientific assessments, including being a coordinating lead author on international climate assessments led by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), thus contributing to IPCC being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He co-led Volume 1 of the 2017 4th U.S. National Climate Assessment. Amongst his major awards, Dr. Wuebbles has received the Cleveland Abbe Award from the American Meteorological Society, the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Bert Bolin Global Environmental Change Award from the American Geophysical Union. He is a Fellow of three major professional science societies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Meteorological Society. He was a member of the joint U.S. National Academy of Science and UK Royal Society Committee on Climate Change that wrote Climate Change: Evidence and Causes in 2014 and updated it in 2020. He led special assessments of climate change and its impacts on the Great Lakes region, and on Illinois in 2019 and 2021, respectively. He also coauthored the 2021 Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region. In 2022, he chaired a committee for the National Academy of Sciences that wrote a special report on a framework for greenhouse gas emissions inventories being used in consideration of policies to reduce the emissions affecting climate change. He wrote the proposal for the University of Illinois to host the international Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress to Chicago in June 2025.

Marie Lynn Miranda, a nationally renowned leader in higher education and geospatial health informatics, became the 10th chancellor of the University of Illinois Chicago in July 2023. She also serves as a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science. Chancellor Miranda brings a focus on access and excellence at scale across UIC’s educational, research, and clinical enterprises. She champions a vision that prioritizes the success of students and seeks to enhance faculty scholarship and UIC’s $500 million research profile.

As chancellor of UIC, Miranda has introduced five strategic priorities essential to UIC’s continued success as Chicago’s only public research university. These priorities reaffirm UIC’s commitment to student success; expand the research profile to position the university at the forefront of innovation and Chicago’s knowledge economy; engage with the region’s communities with a focus on educational and health equity; forge productive partnerships with businesses, nonprofits, and the government sector to create opportunities for faculty and student engagement; and elevate UIC as a destination to recruit and retain world-class faculty and staff. These priorities are advancing the university’s equity-focused mission to provide the broadest access to the highest levels of educational, research, and clinical excellence.

Miranda is also director of the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI), a research, education, and outreach organization committed to fostering environments where all people can prosper. The initiative is best known for its work on childhood lead exposure — contributing to the CDC’s decision to set a more protective standard for childhood blood lead levels, developing strategies for combating lead in drinking water, and identifying lead in aviation gasoline as a contributor to elevated blood lead levels. CEHI’s most recent work focuses on racial residential segregation and how segregated neighborhoods experience greater exposure to social and environmental stressors, which drive health and educational disparities. CEHI now calls UIC and Chicago home.

Miranda’s tenure at UIC is also marked by her active involvement in Chicago’s civic life. She serves on the Board of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and The Chicago Network. She also serves on several national boards, including the Doris Duke Foundation, the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Institute for Nursing Research, the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, and the Executive Committee of the Board of Hispanic Serving Research Universities.

Before joining UIC, Miranda held leadership roles at several prominent institutions. She served as provost at Notre Dame, where she led the academic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and launched diversity initiatives. At Rice University, as provost she implemented $230 million in strategic investments centered around molecular nanotechnology, data sciences, neuroengineering, inequities and inequalities, and general research competitiveness. At the University of Michigan, she restructured the doctoral program and enhanced alumni relations as dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment. Miranda started her academic career at Duke University, where she was a faculty member for 21 years and served as director of undergraduate programs for the Nicholas School of the Environment.

Miranda is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of Duke University, where she earned a bachelor’s in mathematics and economics and was named a Truman Scholar. She has a PhD and master’s from Harvard University, where she held a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Miranda is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Miranda and her husband, Christopher Geron, are the proud parents of three children, two English Setters, and roughly 500,000 honeybees.