Belay Demoz holds a doctoral degree in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Nevada and Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada. Before joining UMBC/JCET, he was a Professor of Physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Howard University, where he was Director of Graduate Studies for the Physics Department and also one of the Principal PIs at the Beltsville Research Campus. Before joining academia, he worked for the private industry as a NASA contractor, followed by some time as a Civil Servant at NASA/GSFC in the Mesoscale Dynamics Branch. He has chaired the Committee for Atmospheric LIDAR Application Studies (CLAS) for the American Meteorological Society. He is a member of the Atmospheric Observation Panel for Climate (AOPC) Working Group on GRUAN (WG-GRUAN). He has served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research, the web magazine Earthzine and many other editorial boards. He has organized national and international conferences and workshops, serves in a number of working groups and international organizations and also serves as an adjunct Professor at the University of Utah. He is also active in organizing national and international research field observations (e.g., WAVES 2007, IHOP2002, PECAN 2015). He is the current Director of the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology.