Hans Volkert is Senior Scientist at the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre (IPA), Germany, and currently serves as the Secretary-General of IAMAS. He was appointed by the Council of the IUGG in 2011 as one of the Union's three liaison officers to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with a focus on atmospheric issues. His main research interests are in mesoscale meteorology, weather forecasting, and the development of meteorology as a branch of physics.