James Smith is the William and Edna Macaleer Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University. Smith studies hydrology and hydrometeorology — the interplay of water and energy between the lower atmosphere and land — in extreme floods. Smith’s studies have centered on development of technologies for measuring rainfall from weather radar, random modeling of the space-time structure of rainfall, and the microphysics of extreme rainfall. His research interests include flood hazards from landfalling tropical cyclones, thunderstorms in urban environments and the transfer of heat in mountainous terrain. Smith is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union.