Professor William R. Cotton is a professor emeritus in the Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University. He completed his PhD studies in Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University in 1970. His post-doctoral employment includes being a Research Scientist at the NOAA Experimental Meteorology Laboratory (1970-1974). In December 1974, he joined the faculty of Atmospheric Science, and he retired as full professor in 2010, followed by a Senior Research Scientist appointment until retirement in 2020. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University. He has supervised or co-supervised 44 PhD students. He has authored or co-authored 5 books and authored or co-authored 204 reviewed technical publications. In 1993, he received the CSU Research Foundation Researcher of the Year Award. In 1999, he was the recipient of the Penn State University College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Charles L. Hosler Alumni Scholar Award. In 2003, he received the Colorado State University Jack Cermak Distinguished Advisor Award. In 2012, he received the Weather Modification Association's Schaefer Award for scientific and technological discoveries that constituted  a major contribution to the advancement of weather modification. In 2020, he was given the award of “Honorary Member of the International Commission on Clouds and Precipitation”.