Dr. Jadwiga (Yaga) Richter is a Senior Scientist at the National Science Foundation's National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR), where she has spent most of her career advancing Earth system science through an integrative, cross-disciplinary lens. Yaga has led several interdisciplinary teams on topics ranging from identifying sources of forecast skill in the challenging “Week 3–4” range to exploring how the Earth system responds to a range of natural and human-driven influences—and how that knowledge can be used to better anticipate impactful environmental outcomes. She is known for bringing together scientists across disciplines and fostering collaboration across institutional and intellectual boundaries. Her work reflects a deep commitment to reconnecting what science has often fragmented—connecting people, tools, and knowledge systems to better understand and respond to the complexity of the Earth system. She sees this integration as essential to reshaping how science can serve society in an increasingly interconnected world.
Currently, Yaga serves as a Special Projects Lead to the NSF NCAR Director, leading NSF NCAR’s Earth System Predictability Across Timescales Initiative, aimed at advancing scientific understanding and developing tools to enhance societal resilience. Yaga holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with a minor in Physics from the State University of New York at Purchase and earned her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 2002.