Dr. Morris serves as PI and Director of the NOAA Center for Atmospheric Sciences (NCAS) and recently received a second 5-year, $12.3M grant from the Department of Commerce through NOAA for the continuation of its operations. NCAS is a research and training facility that is designed to advance Howard University’s research capabilities in the atmospheric sciences, to provide a cadre of highly-trained professionals to the global workforce, and to implement a unique alliance and talent pipeline between the weather industry, NOAA, several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), and majority-serving Universities. 

Dr. Morris has served as the Deputy Director of the Center for the Study of Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Atmospheres (CSTEA) since 1996. This NASA-funded university research center has been in existence since 1992 and has produced critical collaborative research between the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Howard University faculty. Dr. Morris spearheaded an initiative to develop atmospheric sciences as a major focus of Howard University's research portfolio. Dr. Morris was also the chief architect and founding faculty member of the Howard University Graduate Program in Atmospheric Sciences (HUPAS). This program is a full member of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and has produced several successful minority PhDs in Atmospheric Sciences. 

Dr. Morris’ research interests include atmospheric and interstellar chemistry, air quality, photochemistry and chemical dynamics, computational chemistry, and field and maritime measurements of aerosols and trace gases in the troposphere and stratosphere. He has published over 40 papers, ranging from matrix-isolation infrared spectroscopy to the impacts of Saharan dust on the global atmosphere, delivered over 70 invited talks and national conference presentations, and guided research for over 100 students at the graduate, undergraduate, and high school levels.

The research themes that guide his current projects are:

• the environmental impacts of aerosols on regional and global scales,
• the role of aerosols on urban public and environmental health,
• the fundamental physical and chemical roles of particulate in planetary atmospheres, and
• the interplay between weather/meteorological phenomena and atmospheric chemistry, i.e. “chemical meteorology”. 

He has served as Chief Scientist for three trans-Atlantic missions aboard the NOAA research vessel, Ronald H. Brown, each time leading an international team of scientists on a scientific expedition that coupled together comprehensive atmospheric, oceanographic, and satellite measurements to investigate aerosol processes within Saharan dust episodes. 

In addition to his research and leadership roles at Howard University, Dr. Morris serves on several boards including the National Academy of Sciences Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC) and the Advisory Board of the Banneker Institute. Dr. Morris earned his PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from Georgia Tech (the first African American PhD recipient of this program) and his BS degrees in chemistry and mathematics from Morehouse College. He has also had postdoctoral tenures at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, the University of California – Davis, and at the Advanced Study Institute in Erice, Sicily.