He then earned a Ph.D. in geophysical science at the University of Chicago in 1981 with the dissertation Investigations of Thunderstorm Gust Fronts from Project NIMROD Data under advisor Ted Fujita.

[8] He has participated in a dozen major field experiments including NIMROD (1978), JAWS (1982), ERICA (1988/89), VORTEX (1994/95), FASTEX (1997), IHOP (2002), BAMEX (2003), and VORTEX2 (2009/10).

[9] His predecessor from July 2008 - June 2012,[10] Tim Killeen, was also NCAR director prior to heading NSF GEO.

[11] Wakimoto was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in 1996, was a Councilor from 1997-2000, and received its Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award for "significant contributions to the understanding of mesoscale phenomena through insightful and detailed analysis of observations" in 1992.

He has published over 100 journal articles and was associate editor of Monthly Weather Review, as well as co-editor of AMS Meteorological Monograph: Radar and Atmospheric Science: A Collection of Essays in Honor of David Atlas.