AI2ES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Fellow at CIRA Colorado
- Postdoctoral Researcher
Akansha is a postdoctoral fellow at CIRA Colorado working with Dr. Imme Ebert-Uphoff and Kyle Hilburn. Her research focuses on developing machine learning approaches for satellite data. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, MS in Information Technology from IIIT-Bangalore, and B.Tech in Computer Science. She spent one year in NTU Singapore researching real-time operating systems before starting her Ph.D. Her doctoral work focuses on using ML and satellite imagery for control, modeling, and forecasting solar power. She also interned at the GeoAI group at Oak Ridge National Lab during her Ph.D.
Job Titles:
- Graduate Student
- Undergraduate Researcher
Alex Nozka is an Undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma studying meteorology and computer science. His research focuses on nowcasting tornados via machine learning. When not in school, Alex enjoys watching storms, playing water polo and frisbee golf, and hanging out with friends.
Amanda Murphy is a PhD student at the University of Oklahoma working under Dr. Cameron Homeyer. Her work focuses on using radar data along with machine learning techniques to better understand the presentation of tornadic vs. non-tornadic thunderstorms on radar and work toward improved prediction of tornadoes. Amanda earned her B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois before completing her M.S. in Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Research
Andrea is a Research Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University (CSU) and a visitor at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Weather Risks and Decisions in Society (WRaDS) program . Her research focuses on tropical cyclone product development, building datasets for interdisciplinary societal impacts research, improving the R2O(2R) process, and risk communication. She received an MS in atmospheric science from CSU and a BA in mathematics/chemistry from New College of Florida.
Job Titles:
- Graduate Student
- Master 's Student and Graduate Research Assistant
- Research Assistant at the University of Oklahoma
- Undergraduate Researcher
Andrew Justin is a Research Assistant at the University of Oklahoma currently working on the automated detection of fronts via machine learning. He has a passion for coding, storm chasing, and severe weather forecasting. His position is funded by NOAA.
Andrew Justin is a master's student and graduate research assistant at the University of Oklahoma working under Dr. Amy McGovern and developing deep learning models that can reliably detect and classify frontal boundaries. Starting in the summer of 2022, his focus will shift to making my deep learning models operational so that forecasters can use them in real-time to expedite the frontal analysis process. He earned his B.S. in Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.
Mr. Kurbanovas is a full-time lead software engineer at the xCITE laboratory for the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) at the University at Albany. Mr. Kurbanovas manages all xCITE lab hardware, software, and networking, including data storage, high-end GPU, compute servers, and high-end visualization. Additionally, with a Masters in Computer Science and expertise in Machine Learning and data analysis, Mr. Kurbanovas contributes to on-going xCITE lab projects with public and private partners, including academic faculty and students. Finally, Mr. Kurbanovas serves as a mentor to undergraduate and REU students, training in machine learning algorithm development, data management techniques, and data analytic tools while working in an agile programming environment.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute
- Undergraduate Researcher
Ashley Marines is an undergraduate research assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She is pursuing a bachelor's degree in Physics, minor in Computer Science, and minor in Mathematics. A student at Del Mar College transferring to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in Fall 2022. This summer, she is undertaking a group project as an intern with the AI2ES, which is taking part in the 2022 NSF REU program on applied computing research. Her current focus is prediction of water levels using artificial neural networks.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute
- Undergraduate Researcher
Beto Estrada Jr. is an undergraduate research assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, where he is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in computer science with a focus on information systems. He also has a minor in atmospheric science. His research focuses on manipulating real-time Coastal Bend ocean conditions and prediction data and visualizing them through interactive charts for stakeholders to utilize.
Brandon McClung grew up near Cleveland, OH before leaving in August 2005 to start his B.S. in Meteorology at OU. In May 2009, he commissioned as an Air Force Officer where he travelled the world, providing critical weather information to military operators and planners. In 2015 he graduated from the Air Force Institute of Technology with an M.S. in Applied Physics, researching impacts of extreme plasma bubbles on ionospheric data assimilation. Later, he achieved an M.S. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Washington in 2019, researching terrain induced winds in Northern California that fueled the destructive 2018/2019 wildfires. His research interests today include Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML), with a specific focus on AI/ML techniques for lightning prediction. Brandon enjoys most outdoor activities like hiking, cycling, and overlanding (car camping) with his Jeep.
Carly Sutter is a PhD student working under Dr. Kara Sulia and Dr. Christopher Thorncroft at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center and Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University at Albany. Starting in the fall of 2021, her research will involve using AI and ML to explain winter weather in New York State. She completed her MS in Applied Mathematics from the University of Missouri where she studied Prandtl's Boundary Layer Theory, and her BS in Mathematics Education from North Carolina State University.
Chad Wiley is a master's student working under Dr. Amy McGovern and Dr. Corey Potvin at the University of Oklahoma, School of Meteorology. His current research will work to improve short-term severe weather forecasting using deep learning techniques. Before attending the University of Oklahoma, Chad graduated from the Millersville University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in meteorology and a minor in computer science.
Charlotte Cabrera is an undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma studying Computer Science, with a minor in Math and Sociology. Charlotte works on using machine learning to predict visibility in an area from monocular Mesonet images.
Chris Cepin is an undergraduate student studying meteorology at NC State University. She plans to attend graduate school and afterwards work with the National Weather Service as a Warning Coordination Meteorologist. Her main area of interest is information dissemination to the public, but she is motivated to work in a variety of topic areas depending on where she can be of help. She is working on developing a model that can interpret input images of roadways and other sites in New York as having types of precipitation and amounts of visibility using Machine Learning.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant
- Undergraduate Researcher
Christian Duff is an undergraduate research assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, pursuing a bachelor degree in Computer Science.
His research focuses on the prediction of water temperature using artificial neural networks for cold stunning events.
Ms. Kumler is a scientist working for the Corporative Institute of Environmental Sciences CIRES at NOAA's Global System's Laboratory (GSL) in Boulder. She comes from an applied mathematics and atmospheric/oceanic background. She enjoys a variety of projects and public outreach. Most recently, her work has included using deep learning for detection of cyclonic Regions of Interest (ROI) as well as deriving Fire Radiative Power (FRP) with random forests. In her spare time, she's either playing in the mountains or in the kitchen and enjoys taking semi-professional photos as well as competing in triathlons.
Colin Willingham is currently a participant in the REU program under the AI2ES division. He is starting his Senior year at OU and plan on getting his MBA in the dual degree program that OU sponsors with the Gene Rainbolt School of Business, so that he will finish in an additional year. His position is funded by NOAA.
Conner Flansburg is a student at the University of Oklahoma, where he is studying computer science. This summer he is working with Dr. Diochnos, and together they are researching how current machine learning models are affected by poisoning attacks. They are particularly interested in examining how models meant to predict rare events (such as tornados) will perform when noise is introduced.
Job Titles:
- Director of Workforce Programs for Corporate Services
Ms. Betz is the Director of Workforce Programs for Corporate Services and oversees Institutional Strategic Accreditations at Del Mar College. In collaboration with institutional, government, and industry partners, she leads in the development of workforce initiatives creating career pathways for secondary and post-secondary students. In addition, she holds the rank of Major currently serving in the United States Army Reserves specializing in Imagery and Geospatial analysis. Dara received her MBA from University of Phoenix and B.A. in Criminal Justice from Temple University.
Deianna Madlambayan is a master's student and graduate research assistant at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. She is studying risk perception, communication, and decision-making as it relates to AI under Dr. Ann Bostrom and Dr. Julie Demuth. Before attending the University of Washington, Deianna earned her BS in civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Principal Investigator
Dr. McGovern is the PI for AI2ES. She is a Lloyd G. and Joyce Austin Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma where she has a dual-appointment in the School of Computer Science and the School of Meteorology. Dr. McGovern's research focuses on developing and applying AI techniques to a variety of real-world applications, with a special focus on severe weather. Dr. McGovern earned her PhD. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her B.S. (honors) in Math/Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus of Computer Science
Andrew Barto is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, having retired in 2012. He received a B.S. with distinction in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1970, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1975, also from the University of Michigan. He joined the UMass Computer Science Department in 1977 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, became an Associate Professor in 1982, and a Full Professor in 1991. He served as Chair of the UMass Department of Computer Science from 2007 to 2011. Before retiring he co-directed the UMass Computer Science Autonomous Learning Laboratory, which produced many notable machine learning researchers. He is currently an Associate Member of the UMass Neuroscience and Behavior Program. He serves as an associate editor of Neural Computation, as a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Machine Learning Research, and as a member of the editorial board of Adaptive Behavior. Professor Barto is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow and Life Member of the IEEE. He received the 2004 IEEE Neural Network Society Pioneer Award, the IJCAI-17 Award for Research Excellence, and the University of Massachusetts Neurosciences Lifetime Achievement Award in 20019. He has published over one hundred papers or chapters in journals, books, and conference and workshop proceedings. He is co-author of the book "Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction," MIT Press, 1998, 2018.
Dr. Fagg is the Brian E. and Sandra O'Brien Presidential Professor of Computer Science, an Associate Professor of Computer Science and a member of the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology (IBEST) at the University of Oklahoma. His research interests include machine learning, robotics and computational neuroscience. In particular, he employs machine learning techniques to connect brain imaging data with complex motor behavior and to identify changes in each due to development and learning. He holds a PhD and MS in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and a BS in Math/Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University.
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Research Associate at NC State University
Dr. Lowe is a postdoctoral research associate at NC State University with Dr. Ruoying He. Her research focuses on coastal processes in the ocean. She is most interested in the connections between the circulation and marine ecosystems. She is very excited to be part of the Ocean Observing and Modeling Group at NC State and learn artificial intelligence / machine learning methods and apply them to investigations of ocean circulation and contribute to developing coastal solutions. Dr. Lowe earned her PhD at University of California Santa Cruz.
Dr. Medrano is an Assistant Professor in the Conrad Blucher Institute and the Department of Computing Sciences at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Dr. Medrano works on spatial optimization, and is interested in using artificial intelligence to solve computationally demanding location problems. Dr. Medrano earned his PhD in Computational Geography from the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), his Master's in Multimedia Engineering also from UCSB, and his B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College.
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Researcher at the Department of Atmospheric Science of Colorado State University
Dr Mamalakis is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Atmospheric Science of Colorado State University, working under the supervision of professors Imme Ebert-Uphoff and Elizabeth Barnes. His research focuses on the application of machine learning (ML) and ML interpretability methods to climate problems, on climate predictability and teleconnections, climate change impacts, and hydrology. Dr Mamalakis holds a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Irvine, and a MSc and a diploma from the University of Patras, Greece.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Global Weather Corporation
- Fellow of the American Meteorological Society
Dr. Gail is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Global Weather Corporation, a provider of precision forecasts for weather-sensitive business sectors, and was the 2014 President of the American Meteorological Society. He was previously a Director in the Startup Business Group at Microsoft, Vice President of mapping products at Vexcel Corporation, and Director of Earth science programs at Ball Aerospace. Dr. Gail received his undergraduate degree in Physics and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where his research focused on physics of the Earth's magnetosphere. During this period, he spent a year as cosmic ray field scientist at South Pole Station.
Dr. Gail is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and a lifetime Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences. He was the co-chair of their 2017 Earth Sciences Decadal Survey, served on their Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, and has participated on many prior National Academies committees including the 2012 review of the National Weather Service and the 2007 Earth Sciences Decadal Survey. He serves or has served on a variety of other editorial, corporate, and organizational boards including the US Commerce Data Advisory Council. His book Climate Conundrums: What the Climate Debate Reveals About Us was released in 2014, and his opinion pieces have been published in The New York Times, USA Today, and elsewhere.
Dr. Homeyer is an Associate Professor, the Associate Director for Graduate Programs, and the Chesapeake Energy Professor of Climate Systems Science in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. His research focuses on radar and satellite meteorology (especially that related to severe and non-severe convective storms), physics and dynamics of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, and climate variability and change. He is a primary developer of the Gridded NEXRAD WSR-88D Radar (GridRad; gridrad.org) data set, one of only two widely available 3D multi-radar mosaics over the United States. Dr. Homeyer earned all three of his degrees from Texas A&M University: B.S., Meteorology; M.S., PhD., Atmospheric Sciences.
Dr. White is a postdoctoral researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. His work focuses on the use of machine learning methods to estimate properties of clouds primarily from passive satellite imagers. Dr. White also has experience in the development of long-term satellite cloud climate records and lake surface temperature estimation. He earned his PhD and MS in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a BS in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (UIUC).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Co - Principal Investigator
Dr. Thorncroft is a co-PI for AI2ES. He is Director of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the University at Albany. His research is concerned with weather and climate in the tropics and extratropics. Emphasis is given to improving knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of high-impact weather systems through analysis of observations and modeling. He also directs the NYS Mesonet as well as the UAlbany Center of Excellence in Weather and Climate Analytics which is devoted to establishing applied research partnerships with the private sector.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Associate Director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey
Dr. Fiebrich is the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Mesonet and Associate Director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey at the University of Oklahoma. He is also Adjunct Faculty with the School of Meteorology at OU. His areas of expertise are in mesoscale meteorology and climatology, meteorological instrumentation, and applied meteorology and climatology. He oversees all activities of the Oklahoma Mesonet, including sensor calibrations, field operations, technology and software development, data and climate services, research, and outreach to emergency managers, fire fighters, farmers, and K-20 educators. He earned his B.S. in 1998, M.S. in 2000, and Ph.D. in Meteorology in 2007 from the University of Oklahoma. He is a Steering Committee member of the AASC Mesonet committee and a Certified Consulting Meteorologist of the American Meteorological Society.
Dr. Wirz is a postdoctoral fellow at NCAR in the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology (MMM) Lab with the Weather Risks and Decisions in Society (WRaDS) research group working under the supervision of Dr. Julie Demuth. His research focuses on risk communication, risk perceptions, and decision making across a range of stakeholders. His BS is in biology, environmental science, and communication, his MS and PhD are in science communication.
Dr. Anderson is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Colorado State University. His research and teaching is focused on artificial intelligence and neural network algorithms for reinforcement learning, brain-computer interfaces and high-dimensional data. Prof. Anderson earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Dr. Potvin is a Research Meteorologist at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory. Dr. Potvin specializes in ensemble prediction of high-impact thunderstorms and is a senior member of the NOAA Warn-on-Forecast research program. Dr. Potvin earned Ph.D and M.S. degrees in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma and B.S. degrees in Meteorology and Mathematics from Lyndon State College (now Northern Vermont University).
Job Titles:
- Professor of Data Science
David Danks is Professor of Data Science & Philosophy and affiliate faculty in Computer Science & Engineering at University of California, San Diego. His research interests range widely across philosophy, cognitive science, and machine learning, including their intersection. Danks has examined the ethical, psychological, and policy issues around AI and robotics in transportation, healthcare, privacy, and security. He has also done significant research in computational cognitive science and developed multiple novel causal discovery algorithms for complex types of observational and experimental data. Danks is the recipient of a James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award, as well as an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. He currently serves on multiple advisory boards, including the National AI Advisory Committee.
Dr. Hall is Data Scientist at NVIDIA. His research focuses on applications of Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning for the Earth and Space sciences. Previously, Dr. Hall held positions as an Assistant Professor of Research in the Computer Science Department at CU Boulder, and as a Research Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He has a broad technical background in theoretical physics, computational fluid dynamics, remote sensing, numerical methods, weather and climate modeling, and artificial intelligence. Before joining NVIDIA, Dr. Hall spent much of the previous decade developing numerical techniques to improve the atmospheric components of the CESM and E3SM global climate models. Dr. Hall earned a PhD in Soft Condensed-Matter Physics from the University of Santa Barbara, CA and a BA in Physics from CU Boulder. Member of the AI2ES Industrial Advisory Board.
David Harrison is a Research Associate employed by the University of Oklahoma's Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) in partnership with the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center (SPC). David's research interests center around the development, testing, and implementation of machine learning procedures in operational meteorology. His previous and ongoing research has utilized machine learning techniques to develop probabilistic guidance to help SPC forecasters predict the timing and location of lightning occurrence, plan convective watch placement up to 48 hours in advance of a severe weather day, and estimate winter precipitation type in real time. David is also involved in web development, and has created several web displays used internally at the SPC to view and process experimental products.
Dr. Gagne is a Machine Learning Scientist and head of the Analytics and Integrative Machine Learning group at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. His research focuses on developing explainable AI systems for a wide range of Earth System Science challenges, including predicting high impact weather and emulating computationally demanding physical models. He has led the development of multiple interactive short courses on machine learning for atmospheric science. Dr. Gagne received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma.
Dr. Diochnos is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma. Dr Diochnos works in artificial intelligence and is particularly interested in provable guarantees of machine learning classifiers, especially in situations where the data has been adversarially altered. Dr Diochnos earned his PhD in Mathematical Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago, his Master's in Mathematics from the University of Athens (Greece) and his B.S. in Informatics and Telecommunications from the University of Athens (Greece).
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University
Dr. Barnes is an associate professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Her research is largely focused on climate dynamics/predictability and data science methods for earth system research (e.g. machine learning, causal discovery). Prof. Barnes obtained dual B.S. degrees (Honors) in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Washington.
Job Titles:
- Owner and Principal Scientist of Roth Cognitive Engineering
Dr. Roth is owner and principal scientist of Roth Cognitive Engineering. She is a cognitive psychologist by training, and has over 30 years of experience in cognitive analysis and design in a variety of domains including nuclear power plant operations, railroad operations, military command and control, and healthcare. She has supported design of first-of-a-kind systems including next-generation nuclear power plant control rooms; design of collaborative automated systems for airlift planning and monitoring for USTRANSCOM and the Air Mobility Command; and cognitive analysis in support of the Army's Future Vertical Lift program. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making; a fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society; and currently serves as a member of the Board on Human-Systems Integration at the National Academies.
Job Titles:
- Director of the OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research
Dr. Neeman is the Director of the OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research, Associate Professor in the College of Engineering and Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma, as well as the joint co-manager of the XSEDE Campus Engagement program with Dr. Dana Bruson of Internet2. He also founded and co-leads the Research Computing Facilitators Virtual Residency workforce development program. He received his BS in computer science and his BA in statistics with a minor in mathematics from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York in 1987, his MS in CS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1990 and his PhD in CS from UIUC in 1996, where he served as a postdoctoral and graduate researcher at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the Center for Supercomputing Research & Development.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Co - Principal Investigator
Dr. Ebert-Uphoff is a co-PI for AI2ES. She is a Research Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Machine Learning Lead at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA), both at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on the use of data science methods, including causal discovery and machine learning, to applications in climate and weather. Dr. Ebert-Uphoff received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, and the equivalent of B.S. and M.S. degrees in mathematics from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany (now known as KIT).
Dr. Shepherd is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia and Director of its Atmospheric Sciences Program. Dr. Shepherd was the 2013 President of American Meteorological Society (AMS). Prior to academia, he spent 12 years as a scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and was Deputy Project Scientist of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission. Dr. Shepherd is the host of The Weather Channel's Weather Geeks Podcast and a contributor to Forbes Magazine. He chairs the NASA Earth Science Advisory Committee and has previously served on NOAA's Science Advisory Board. His research primarily centers around hydrometeorological extremes, urban climate, and the intersection of weather and society. He has received numerous awards including the 2004 White House PECASE Award, the Captain Planet Foundation Protector of the Earth Award, the 2019 AGU Climate Communication Prize, the 2020 Mani L. Bhaumik Award for Public Engagement with Science and the 2018 AMS Helmut Landsberg Award. He received his B.S., M.S. and PhD in meteorology from Florida State University. He has two TEDx talks on climate science and communication that collectively exceed two million viewers. He is routinely asked to brief the media, Congress, and the White House on weather-climate-science related topics.
Job Titles:
- Senior Member of the Technical Staff in Google
Dr. Hickey is a senior member of the technical staff in Google. He leads the AI for Weather team in Google Research, focusing on the use of machine learning to improve weather forecasting. Jason holds the Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from Cornell University, and the B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Caltech. He has worked at Google since 2008, in areas including artificial intelligence, internet of things, and global computing infrastructure. He was Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Caltech from 1999-2008, research focusing on programming languages and distributed and scientific computing. Member of the AI2ES Industrial Advisory Board.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist and Program Manager of the New York State Mesonet at the University
Dr. Brotzge is a Research Scientist and Program Manager of the New York State Mesonet at the University at Albany. Dr. Brotzge brings decades of experience working with data networks and research-to-operations (R2O). Dr. Brotzge leads a team focused on the collection, quality control, archival and dissemination of high-quality environmental data for the state of New York. Collecting over one million observations per day, the NYSM system includes innovative atmospheric, snow, and vertical profiling sensors, and efforts are now underway with local NWS and national NOAA research centers to integrate these new data into operations. Dr. Brotzge's research has concentrated on the development and improvement of weather observing systems, forecast products, and R2O applications
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Meteorology
Dr. Allen is an Associate Professor of Meteorology in the Department of Earth Sciences, and Director of the Earth and Ecosystem Ph.D. program at Central Michigan University. His research spans the mesoscale to climate scales, particularly through the use of observational, reanalysis and climate model datasets together with statistical modeling frameworks, including work providing fundamental understanding the mechanisms through which climate variability influences severe thunderstorms. His interest in AI/ML has derived through the need for ways to manage the challenges of big data for end users, and efficient approaches to filter such datasets to discover processes. Dr. Allen completed his education at the University of Melbourne, Australia, receiving a Bachelor of Science with a double major in Applied Mathematics and Meteorology, First Class Honors Meteorology Research, and a Ph.D. in Climate Science in 2013.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Machine Intelligence
Dr. John Schreck is a Machine Learning Scientist I and a member of the Machine Intelligence and Learning in Earth Sciences (MILES) group at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Dr. Schreck has extensive machine and reinforcement learning experience spanning a broad range of disciplines, including physics, chemistry, natural language processing, and atmospheric science, and has more than 15 years experience with high performance and GPU computing. Dr Schreck received his Ph.D. in physics from Drexel University in 2012. After postdoc appointments at Oxford and Columbia he worked at The Nielsen Company as a Lead Data Scientist before coming to NCAR.
Dr. Williams is Senior Scientist - Machine Learning and Senior Manager, Forecasting Sciences at The Weather Company, an IBM Business. He leads a team of scientists and software engineers who use AI and data science in conjunction with meteorological expertise to innovate and reduce to practice methods for creating state-of-the-art weather forecasts that routinely serve over 300 million individuals and 3,500 businesses around the globe, including via the popular Weather Channel and Weather Underground mobile apps. Dr. Williams earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics, M.S. in Applied Mathematics, and M.A. in Mathematics from the University of Colorado and his B.A. (Honors) in Physics from Swarthmore College. Member of the AI2ES Industrial Advisory Board.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Zambon is a Research Assistant Professor in the Ocean Observing and Modeling group within the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University. His research expertise is in numerical modeling of coupled coastal environmental systems, air-sea interaction, high performance cloud computing, and IT infrastructure. Prior to his faculty position, Dr. Zambon earned his BS in Atmospheric Science from the University at Albany in 2007, MS and PhD from NC State University in 2009 and 2014, and completed postdoctoral research in 2017.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist at NCAR
Dr. Demuth is a Research Scientist at NCAR in the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology (MMM) Lab with the Weather Risks and Decisions in Society (WRaDS) research group. Her research focuses on hazardous weather risk communication, risk perception, and decision-making with expert groups (forecasters, emergency managers, etc.) and members of the public. Her BS and MS are in Atmospheric Science, and her PhD is in Communication.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center
Dr. Sulia is a research associate at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) at the University at Albany. Her research focuses on parameterization development, particularly in the field of ice microphysics. Further, and importantly for AI2ES, Dr. Sulia serves as the Director of the xCITE Laboratory, a high-end machine learning, data analytics, and scientific visualization facility located at ASRC. Through the implementation of innovative technologies, the xCITE Lab provides resources to the University, public, and private partners with specific climate and weather needs.
Dr. Musgrave is a Research Scientist and the Tropical Cyclone Group Lead at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on tropical cyclone structure and evolution and the representation of tropical cyclones in dynamical and statistical models. Dr. Musgrave earned Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University and B.S. degrees in Computer Engineering and Interdisciplinary Studies (Quantitative Sciences) from the University of Florida.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research
Dr. Haynes is a Research Scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on applying machine learning techniques to atmospheric science-related topics, with a current emphasis on tropical cyclone problems. Dr. Haynes received Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University, a Master of Computer Science degree from Colorado State University, and B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Music Performance/Computer Science from Indiana University.
Job Titles:
- Principal Researcher in Machine Learning at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Dr. Wagstaff is a Principal Researcher in machine learning at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and an associate research professor at Oregon State University. Her research focuses on developing new machine learning methods for use onboard spacecraft and in data archives for planetary science, astronomy, cosmology, and more. She earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University followed by an M.S. in Geological Sciences and a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS). She received the Lew Allen Award for Excellence in Research and two NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medals, and she is a Senior Member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. She is passionate about keeping machine learning relevant to real-world problems.
Lander Ver Hoef is a PhD student in mathematics at Colorado State University. He has a background in pure and applied mathematics, particularly data science, machine learning, graph theory, and topology. Recent work has focused on applying topological data analysis to satellite cloud observations with the intent of creating explainable classifiers. Previously, he received a Master's and Bachelor's in mathematics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and served as an ensign in the NOAA Corps of Commissioned Officers. In his free time, he enjoys cross country skiing, reading, and playing board games.
Laure Zanna is a Professor in Mathematics & Atmosphere/Ocean Science at the Courant Institute, New York University. Her research focuses on the dynamics of the climate system and the main emphasis of her work is to study the influence of the ocean on local and global scales. Prior to NYU, she was a faculty member at the University of Oxford in the Department of Physics until 2019, and obtained her PhD in 2009 in Climate Dynamics from Harvard University.
She is the lead principal investigator of the NSF-NOAA Climate Process Team on Ocean Transport and Eddy Energy aiming to improve ocean mesoscale parameterizations in the NCAR, GFDL and LANL numerical models. She is also the director of the project M2LInES: Multiscale Machine Learning In coupled Earth System Modeling to improve coupled climate models with machine learning.
She was the recipient of the 2020 Nicholas P. Fofonoff Award from the American Meteorological Society "For exceptional creativity in the development and application of new concepts in ocean and climate dynamics". She currently serves as an editor for the Journal of Climate
Dr. Peek is director of the Natural Hazards Center and professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is also the leader of the National Science Foundation-supported CONVERGE facility, the Social Science Extreme Events Research (SSEER) network, and the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Extreme Events Research (ISEEER) network. Peek is co-author of Children of Katrina, author of Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11, and co-editor of Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora. She helped develop FEMA P-1000, Safer, Stronger, Smarter: A Guide to Improving School Natural Hazard Safety, which is the first comprehensive natural hazards-focused school safety guidance for the nation.
Dr. Maria J. Molina is an assistant professor within the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Maryland, College Park and an Affiliate Faculty with the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. She is also affiliated with the National Center for Atmospheric Research and serves as an adjunct faculty at North Carolina State University, both partners of AI2ES. Her research is largely focused on climate and extremes data science methods to better understand predictability and uncover patterns from large Earth system datasets.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate
- Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Madsen is a postdoctoral research associate working with Dr. Amy McGovern. Her research interests include subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) predictability, extreme weather events, mid-latitude dynamics, and machine learning. Dr. Madsen received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where her work focused on improving understanding of variability within the wintertime Pacific jet stream. After graduating, Dr. Madsen joined Waves to Weather (https://www.wavestoweather.de/) for a year to explore S2S predictability of blocked weather regimes. Within AI2ES, her work focuses on using AI/ML to better understand and improve severe weather predictability on timescales beyond a week.
Dr. Cains is a postdoctoral fellow at NCAR in the Mesoscale and Microscope Meteorology (MMM) Lab working with Dr. Julie Demuth and the Weather Risks and Decisions in Society (WRaDS) research group. Dr. Cains' research interests include the development of assessment and measurement metrics for complex systems and information visualization for risk communication. Her PhD research focused on the parameterization of socio-environmental systems to inform quantitative risk assessments and support local government decision-making. Dr. Cains earned her BS in Environmental Science (Environmental Toxicology) from Western Washington University and MS/MPA in Environmental Science and Policy and PhD in Environmental Science (Environmental Risk Assessment) from Indiana University.
Job Titles:
- Researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research
Dr. McGraw is a postdoctoral researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University, working with Prof. Imme Ebert-Uphoff and Dr. Kate Musgrave. She will be working on using trustworthy AI methods to better understand tropical storms and their impacts. Dr. McGraw earned her Ph.D. in atmospheric science in 2019 at Colorado State University. Prior to joining AI2ES, Dr. McGraw was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, where her research focused on understanding the predictability of extreme sea ice loss on subseasonal timescales.
Dr. Rogers is a Research Associate III at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University, where he splits his time between satellite remote sensing research and education and outreach tasks. Dr. Rogers was formerly the Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) lead for the NASA CloudSat mission, where he oversaw the CloudSat Education Network, and now develops resiliency programs for fire, flood, and drought using NOAA observations for the K-12 audience. Dr. Rogers earned his MS and PhD degrees in Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, and a B.A. in Physics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor in Geospatial Systems Engineering at Texas a & M University - Corpus Christi
Dr. Michael J. Starek is an Associate Professor in Geospatial Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC), Chief Scientist and Director of the Measurement Analytics (MANTIS) Lab with the Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science. Dr. Starek holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Florida and was formerly a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow of the U.S. Army Research Office in affiliation with North Carolina State University. His research focuses on the merging of geomatics, remote sensing, and geospatial computing for precise measurement and analysis of natural and built systems. Dr. Starek is contributing his experience of precise spatial measurements of the coastal environment and his experience in applying AI to such problems to the Coastal AI research component of the institute.
Monique Shotande is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Oklahoma. Her current research focuses on developing and refining machine learning models for tornado prediction. She received her BS in Digital Arts and Sciences from the University of Florida and MS and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Oklahoma where she studied artificial intelligence, machine learning, and medical computing. Her doctoral research focused on modeling infant neuromotor development and the gait of individuals with amputation.
Dr. Flora is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorology working under Dr. Corey Potvin to improve short-term severe weather forecasting using deep learning techniques. Dr. Flora specializes in machine learning (ML) and ML interpretability methods, storm-scale predictability, and model verification. Dr. Flora earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma and B.S. degree in Geography (concentration in Meteorology and Climatology) from Ball State University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Analysis
Dr. Snook is a senior research scientist at the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms at the University of Oklahoma. His research focuses on prediction of severe weather hazards, such as hail and tornadoes, using high-resolution ensemble forecasts and AI/ML methods. Dr. Snook earned a B.S. in Meteorology from Iowa State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma.
Job Titles:
- Director of Research & Development at UAlbany 's Center of Excellence
Dr. Bassill is the Director of Research & Development at UAlbany's Center of Excellence. Dr. Bassill applies his background in numerical weather prediction, forecasting, and data analysis to "real-world" weather problems in and near the state of New York. These are often complex problems which require a synthesis of weather data and domain-specific data such as utility outages, road salt, or school closures. This work requires extensive outreach to non-meteorologists, and necessitates easily digestible information tailored for these decision makers. Through his affiliation with the NYS Mesonet, Dr. Bassill also creates a wealth of products and tools for use by operational forecasters and domain experts to maximize this resource. Finally, Dr. Bassill conducts original research on challenging forecast topics with both undergraduates and graduates at UAlbany.
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow in Governance Studies
Dr. Nicol Turner Lee is a senior fellow in Governance Studies, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation, and serves as Co-Editor-In-Chief of TechTank. Dr. Turner Lee researches public policy designed to enable equitable access to technology across the U.S. and to harness its power to create change in communities across the world. Her work also explores global and domestic broadband deployment and internet governance issues. She is an expert on the intersection of race, wealth, and technology within the context of civic engagement, criminal justice, and economic development.
Job Titles:
- Co - Principal Investigator
Dr. Tissot is a co-PI for AI2ES. He is the Conrad Blucher Institute Chair for Coastal Artificial Intelligence and an Associate Research Professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Dr. Tissot's research focuses on the development and operational application of AI methods for analysis and prediction of coastal processes. Projects include developing operational predictions for navigation, contributions to coastal conservation and emergency management, and work on relative sea level rise and coastal flooding. Dr. Tissot earned a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, and a Diploma in Physics Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne.
Dr. Chase is a Postdoctoral Research Associate for AI2ES. Dr. Chase's Ph.D. work applied neural networks to create a novel radar remote sensing retrieval for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission's Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (GPM-DPR). Although his past research was heavily focused on radar remote sensing, he looks to apply his expertise in machine learning and meteorology to the general tasks on the AI2ES institute. Dr. Chase earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in Meteorology and Water Resources from the State University of New York (SUNY), The College at Brockport.
Job Titles:
- Co - Principal Investigator
Dr. He is a co-PI for AI2ES. He is a Goodnight Innovation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University. His research expertise spans from coastal circulation dynamics and air-sea interaction to biophysical interactions. As the director of the Ocean Observing and Modeling Group, he conducts coastal ocean observations, remote sensing data analyses, and leads the development of prediction models of ocean circulation, air-sea-wave interactions, physical-biogeochemical couplings, as well as data assimilation. Dr. He earned his PhD. in Physical Oceanography from the University of South Florida. Prior to joining the NC State, he was a research scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Dr. Ryan Lagerquist is a postdoc at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) and NOAA. He received his B.Sc. Honours in Atmospheric Science from the University of Alberta and M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. He has been working at the nexus of machine learning and atmospheric science since 2012. His research has focused mainly on severe-weather prediction. More recently, Ryan's research has also focused on interpretable deep learning, novel methods for image-to-image translation, and emulating/accelerating physical models.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Chair of the Department of Atmospheric
Dr. Torn is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University at Albany. His research focuses on trying to understand atmospheric predictability by determining the source and growth of errors within numerical models across a number of timescales using ensemble forecasts, with emphasis on synoptic and mesoscale systems, such as winter weather, convection, and hurricanes.
Dr. Sean Crowell uses Earth Observations (EO) to develop solutions to the greatest environmental challenges facing the planet today. After receiving his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Crowell transitioned to atmospheric science research, first in numerical weather prediction and data assimilation for severe weather at NOAA NSSL, followed by atmospheric measurements of carbon gases and inference on carbon emissions from those data at the University of Oklahoma. In 2016, Dr. Crowell became the Deputy Principal Investigator and Project Scientist of the GeoCarb Mission, which was delivered to NASA in November 2023. Dr. Crowell started LumenUs Scientific Solutions in November 2022 to begin working with industry partners to develop tailored solutions to practical problems arising from decarbonization and other environmental challenges.
Dr. Smith, President of Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI), received a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry, a Master's Degree in Science Teaching, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before joining HRI in 1991, Dr. Smith taught high school chemistry and physics. Dr. Smith leads the evaluations of several projects funded by NSF and the US Department of Education. In addition, he conducts research on science teacher knowledge.
Dr. Przybyło is a postdoctoral research associate at the University at Albany developing software products and tools for the atmospheric sciences with a focus on winter weather. Her experience includes building user interfaces powered by deep learning and machine learning techniques to provide exploratory analysis and insight to end users. Within the AI2ES science objectives, she harnesses the power of convolutional neural networks to predict the presence of precipitation in New York State Mesonet imagery at night to provide real-time, operational capacities. Dr. Przybylo earned her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University at Albany in 2021.
Dr. Hsieh is a professor emeritus in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, at the University of British Columbia in Canada. His research has been primarily on the development of machine learning in the environmental sciences. He is the author of "Machine Learning Methods in the Environmental Sciences", the first single-authored textbook on this topic.
Dr. Yoonjin Lee is a postdoc at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA). She received her Ph.D. and M.S. degree in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University and B.S. degree in Environmental Engineering from Ewha Womans University in South Korea. Her research area focuses on applying machine learning techniques to use geostationary satellite data in weather forecasting.
Eleanor Salm is an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Data Science and Atmospheric Oceanic Sciences. She is in Norman for the summer as part of the REU program working with Dr. Maria Madsen and Dr. Amy McGovern on using AI to better identify forecasts of opportunity. When not at school or work, she enjoys reading long fantasy novels and exploring Norman.
Erica is a bilingual meteorologist. Since graduating from the University of Oklahoma, she's experienced a wide array of weather in her broadcast meteorology adventures. She's held previous positions in Oklahoma City, Central California, and The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Georgia. She now brings her skillset to MyRadar providing national forecasts in English and Spanish.
Erin is a graduate student in the M.S. program in Speech-Language Pathology at the University in Washington, specializing in clinical research. Her research interests include speech perception and language development in pediatric populations, the neural bases of speech and hearing, and science communication. Erin received her B.S. in Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh.
Evan Krell is a Geospatial Computer Science PhD student at Texas A & M University - Corpus Christi, where he has previously received an MS in Computer Science. His research interests are in autonomous marine vehicles (mission planning and onboard computer vision), coastal AI applications, and explainable AI. Projects include using metaheuristics and deep learning for efficient marine route planning, onboard classification of turbid underwater imagery for data-driven sampling and developing XAI techniques to explain models whose inputs are rasters with hundreds of highly correlated channels.
Grant Eckstein is an undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma pursuing a bachelor's degree in computer science. His research focuses on convective initiation prediction using deep learning. His position is funded by Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS).
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant at the University of Oklahoma
- Undergraduate Researcher
Haley Perez is an undergraduate research assistant at the University of Oklahoma pursing a bachelor's degree in Computer Science with a minor in mathematics. Her research is focused on bias and ethics of Artificial Intelligence when applied to Environmental Sciences. Outside of Academics she is enjoys spending time outdoors with her kids and is an advocate for native planting and conservation.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute
- Undergraduate Researcher
Hector Marrero is an undergraduate research assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He is pursuing a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. He works with new interactive touch screens that are being used in the hybrid work environment while learning about how to apply artificial intelligence methods to the environment through the AI2ES online content.
Jason Stock is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science working under Dr. Chuck Anderson at Colorado State University. His current research focuses on extending existing methods and developing new methods for trustworthy and explainable artificial intelligence specifically for applications in the environmental sciences. Recent work has focused on using machine learning to improve vertical profiles of temperature and moisture for severe weather forecasting. Jason earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics from Colorado State University.
Jay Rothenberger is a graduate student of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma studying under Dr. Dimitris Diochnos. Jay hopes to apply his knowledge of computational learning theory to provide provable guarantees of robustness towards increasing the trust and trustworthiness of machine learning classifiers.
Mr. Stewart is the lead of the Informatics and Visualization Branch with the NOAA Global System Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. With a unique background in both Meteorology and Computer Science, he has over 20 years of experience in software development for visualizing, processing, distributing, and interacting with geophysical data. Over the last couple of years, his work has expanded to machine learning applications for object identification and improving data processing capabilities along with leveraging commercial cloud capabilities to provide tools and services to efficiently explore the ever growing volumes of data.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Radiant Earth Foundation
Jed Sundwall is the Executive Director of the Radiant Earth Foundation. He has over 15 years of experience working at the intersection of data, product development, cloud computing, economics, and policy. Before joining Radiant Earth, he created various data sharing and sustainability initiatives at Amazon, including the Amazon Web Services Open Data Program which makes over 100 petabytes of data available for analysis in the cloud. He helped create new patterns of sharing data in the cloud that have been adopted by NASA, USGS, Google, Microsoft, Geosciences Australia and other institutions around the world. He serves on the Board of Directors of NatureServe, is an advisor to PLACE Fund, and has served on the Landsat Advisory Group. He has a master's degree in foreign policy from the University of California in San Diego where he studied the adoption of open source software by the Brazilian federal government.
Job Titles:
- Lab Manager
- Manager
- Webmaster
Ms. Warrillow is the website manager for the AI2ES project and the lab manager for Co-PI Dr. Ruoying He. She helps keep the research flowing in Dr. He's Ocean Observing and Modeling Group at North Carolina State University, including by managing websites for numerous research projects. Ms. Warrillow has a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara in Aquatic Biology and a MS from Cornell University in Natural Resources (Fishery Science).
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Research Associate at Horizon Research, Inc
Jessica A. Dula, Research Associate at Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI), received her Bachelor's Degree in Middle Grade Mathematics Education from Florida State University. Prior to joining HRI in 2016, Mrs. Dula taught seventh grade mathematics in Chapel Hill, NC and sixth through ninth grade mathematics in Tallahassee, FL. At HRI, Mrs. Dula is a member of various research teams, and she is also involved in the evaluations of several research projects.
Jordan Robinson is an undergraduate student at Rhodes College majoring in Physics. He graduated the valedictorian at Memphis Catholic High School. He is currently working with AI2ES as a research student, focusing on using machine learning techniques to improve 0-3hr hail forecasts.
Joseph is a bilingual meteorologist and hosts Spanish-language series and podcasts on MyRadar for international audiences. Joseph is an expert in bilingual risk & crisis communication and works at a NOAA Cooperative Institute, researching how multilingual communities receive, understand, and respond to different weather and climate hazards. His research has shaped how meteorological organizations approach multilingual communication and outreach in disaster contexts. His work has been published in flagship journals and recently featured by the National Academies of Science. As chair of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Committee for Hispanic and Latinx Advancement, Joseph leads an international cohort of 66 scientists representing academia, broadcast networks, public sector, private sector, and students to elevate underserved populations in the sciences and beyond. He was recently awarded the prestigious 2022 AMS Award for Early Career Professional Achievement for his continued efforts in bilingual risk communication and is respected among his peers. He is an alumnus of Texas A&M University and is obtaining a doctoral degree at the University of Oklahoma.
Joshua Friesen is an undergraduate student studying software engineering and mathematics at Fresno Pacific University. His work in the AI2ES program is focused on the research and development of XAI techniques that better understand models trained with multi-band data. In his free time he enjoys playing volleyball, tennis, and piano.
Joshua Pan is an undergraduate atmospheric science student at Cornell University, where he is conducting research with idealized atmospheric general circulation models. In the 2021 AI2ES REU program, he is applying machine learning methods to diagnose visibility and precipitation types from New York State Mesonet camera images. His leisure pursuits include cycling, skiing, and PC flight simulators.
Kaelia Okamura is an undergraduate senior at San Diego State University studying Applied Mathematics with a double minor in Statistics and Linguistics. Her work with AI2ES will focus on predicting winter weather using AI and ML. She is excited to be part of this diverse winter weather group and looks forward to learning more about and applying these AI and ML methods to her work with NYS Mesonet images in order to more accurately predict winter weather within this area. Her position is funded byNOAA Cooperative Science Center in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology (NCAS-M).
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute
- Undergraduate Researcher
Katie Colburn is an undergraduate research assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, where she is pursuing a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology. Katie works on drawing wet/ dry lines on images of the beach which will be used to program an AI to predict beach inundation. She also does work with historical images including scanning and cataloging coastal imagery. In the winter you can find her volunteering with Padre Island National Seashore to help cold-stunned turtles as another part of her job at CBI.
Kayla Hoffman is an undergraduate student at San Jose State University pursuing a B.S. degree in Meteorology with a concentration in Climate Science. She is currently in the REU program within the AI2ES division and will be starting her senior year at SJSU. Her project focuses on estimating convective updraft characteristics from radar using machine learning.
Job Titles:
- Manager of Departmental Computing for the Department of Atmospheric
Mr. Tyle is the Manager of Departmental Computing for the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University at Albany, at which he received his M.S. in Atmospheric Science in 1995. He also has a B.A. in Psychology, with emphases on Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, from the University of Rochester. His main interest is promoting the use of free- and open-source software packages, mostly using Python, for the analysis, visualization and sharing of geoscientific datasets. One of UAlbany's NSF XSEDE Program Campus Champions (along with AI2ES collaborator Dr. Nicholas Schiraldi), Kevin presently serves on the AMS Board on Data Stewardship and on the Strategic Advisory Committee of Unidata.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Del Mar College
Ms. Caruso is currently an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Del Mar College. Prior to this she was an adjunct instructor and the Engineering Program Coordinator II for Engineering Recruitment and STEM Outreach at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC). She holds a BS degree in Control Systems Engineering Technology, an MS in Education and an MS in Computer Science all from TAMUCC. Caruso's experience includes coordinating outreach activities in the STEM fields to remove the stigma of the sciences in the community.
Kristina Moen is a PhD student in Mathematics working under Dr. Emily J. King at Colorado State University and Dr. Imme Ebert-Uphoff at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA). Her current research uses mathematical methods to detect texture from weather satellite imagery to aid in classification of meteorological phenomena. She received a BS in Economics and BA in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Washington and a Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Math from Iowa State University. Before graduate school, she taught high school math with the U.S. Peace Corps in Lesotho, Southern Africa. In her free time, she plays violin in a string quartet called The Klein 4 Group.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Research
Kyle Hilburn is a Research Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University (CSU). His research focuses on using machine learning for quantitative applications of satellite imagery to improve forecasts of high-impact weather and wildfire events. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University and has received a M.S. in Meteorology from Florida State University and a B.S. in Atmospheric Science from the University of North Dakota.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Research Associate at Horizon Research, Inc
Laura Craven, Research Associate at Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI), received her Bachelor's Degree in Statistics from North Carolina State University. At HRI, Ms. Craven develops surveys, conducts data analyses, and is also involved in the evaluations of several research projects.
Laura McGee is a PhD student in Dr. Ruoying He's Ocean Observing and Modeling Group at North Carolina State University in the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences. Laura's current research interests involve using AI and ML to predict marine environment conditions. She completed her MS in the same group, investigating hurricane impacts on ocean surface mixing and chlorophyll blooms. Ms. McGee completed her BS in physics at University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate
- Postdoctoral Researcher
Lauriana Gaudet will be a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center starting in the late summer working under Dr. Kara Sulia and Dr. Chris Thorncroft. Her Ph.D. work focuses on identifying sensitivities of high-impact weather events to cloud microphysics through forecast ensembles. She is looking forward to combining her numerical weather prediction expertise with machine learning techniques to address AI2ES goals associated with winter weather prediction. Lauriana anticipates earning her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences during the summer and earned her B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences at Lyndon State College.
Marina Vicens Miquel is a Geospatial Computer Science PhD Student at Texas A & M University - Corpus Christi under Dr. Medrano. Marina's research focuses on using AI techniques to solve Geospatial computer science problems, typically using UAV Imagery. She had worked in flood detection from UAVs using recurrent neural networks (RNN), and UAV damage assessment using deep learning. She is currently working on wet / dry shoreline geo-detection by applying deep learning analysis to UAV Imagery. Prior to starting her PhD, Marina earned a double major BS in Computer Science and Mathematics and competed on the TAMUCC NCAA Women ‘s Tennis team.
Matthew Cappucci is an atmospheric scientist and meteorologist who works in TV, radio, print and digital media. He was born on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and attended Sturgis Charter Public School in Hyannis, where he earned an International Baccalaureates diploma. Thereafter, he matriculated into Harvard University, where he designed his own atmospheric sciences major through cross-enrollment at MIT. He's been with MyRadar since August of 2021. Matthew is an avid storm chaser, world traveler and adventurer. He has chased more than a dozen tornadoes, stood in the eye of a hurricane, flown beneath the northern lights and drive a UHaul van through the Arctic tundra. He's also an "umbraphile," traveling thousands of miles every few years to stand in the shadow of the moon during total solar eclipses. His truck looks like a dimpled golf ball from all the times it's been pelted by softball-sized hail.
In addition to working at MyRadar, Matthew delivers forecasts on FOX5 in Washington D.C.. He also works for The Washington Post and WAMU, the local NPR affiliate. Outside of weather, he is a college admissions consultant and also teaches public speaking classes. His book "Looking Up" will be published and released in August. He makes frequent appearances on international television outlets. In his free time, Matthew can usually be found working. He doesn't have free time, nor does he want it. He is a devout Waffle House supporter.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant
- Undergraduate Researcher
Matthew Kastl is an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Conrad Blucher Insititute located at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. He is currently working towards a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. Matthew's contributions consist of helping to construct a camera array and data collection system. Using Sterio Vision Technology the array will be used to collect elevation information about a shoreline to later be used for AI training.
Job Titles:
- Project Manager
- Graduate Student
- Project Manager at the University of Oklahoma
Mel is a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Oklahoma working under Dr. Andrew H. Fagg. She is pursuing her Master's degree in Computer Science. Her research interests include deep learning for computer vision and data science for societal and environmental impact. Prior to joining AI2ES, she completed her Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and worked as a data scientist for the Department of Energy.
Mel is a project manager at the University of Oklahoma and an adjunct professor at Oklahoma City Community College. Prior to her work at OU, she worked as a data scientist in the government sector. Her research interests include deep learning for computer vision and data science for societal and environmental impact. Mel earned her M.S. and B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Oklahoma.
Michael Gray is a Masters student in Dr. Ruoying He's Ocean Observing and Modeling Group at North Carolina State University in the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences. His current research involves the application of ML and AI in ocean models, but he is especially interested in air-sea interactions and the ocean's role in weather systems. He received a B.S. in Physics and a B.S. in Marine Science, both from North Carolina State University.
Michael Yu is an undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma pursuing a degree in Piano Performance with a smidge of computers mixed in. His research focuses on using machine learning to apply a crime show-esque image enhancement on the output of weather prediction systems.
Miranda White is a Coastal and Marine System Science PhD student at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Her research focuses on assessing and communicating variability, uncertainty, and trustworthiness of an AI coastal model that predicts cold temperatures in the local lagoon. She is working collaboratively with NCAR and TAMUCC AI scientists and local stakeholders to improve stakeholder decision-making concerning sea turtle and fisheries conservation efforts during extreme cold events. Miranda earned both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Integrated Environmental Science at Bethune-Cookman University.
Job Titles:
- President of the American Meteorological Society
Ms. Glackin is the President of the American Meteorological Society. She also serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Research Council. From 2015-2019 she was the senior vice president (SVP) for science and forecast operations for The Weather Company, an IBM Business. She is a member of the convening committee for the Science for Climate Action Network and also serves on the visiting committee of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center providing advice to the director. Ms. Glackin has had a long and distinguished career in public service, including 20 years in the National Weather Service and a five-year tenure as Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operations. Ms. Glackin has a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland.
Nathan is a student at Iowa State University, where he is majoring in meteorology, with minors in economics and geographic information systems. This summer, he will be working on training, evaluation, and verification of machine learning models for the Warn-On Forecast System (WoFs), a high-resolution model for severe weather forecasting. Outside of meteorology, he greatly enjoys reading, playing video games, running, and spending time with friends and family.
Nicolas "Nico" Gordillo is a masters student at Colorado State University working under Dr. Elizabeth Barnes. His current research focuses on developing and implementing robust and explainable AI methods for subseasonal-to-seasonal prediction. Before arriving at Colorado State, Nico double majored with a BS in Computer Science and Atmospheric & Oceanic Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His free time activities include watching sports, reading, and playing video games.
Noah Lang is an undergraduate student at Valparaiso University, where he is pursuing bachelor degrees in meteorology and mathematics. His research project focuses on utilizing machine learning to improve thunderstorm prediction in the Warn-on Forecast System.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant
- Undergraduate Assistant
Raven Reese is an undergraduate research assistant specializing in media management for the AI2ES program at the Conrad Blucher Institute. Raven is a senior at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi finishing a B.A. in English, with minors in Creative Writing and Women and Gender Studies. She works to document events and research projects conducted by CBI AI2ES and then communicate important developments in their work across social media platforms. Outside of managing AI2ES outreach in the Gulf Coast, Raven is also an assistant managing editor for the Windward Review, a student-led South Texas literary journal.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute
- Undergraduate Researcher
Savannah Stephenson is an undergraduate research assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. Savannah has not found a focus for her research yet but has interests in machine learning. When not at school or work Savannah enjoys analyzing popular media and writing fiction stories.
Job Titles:
- Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Disaster Tech
Mr. Griffin is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Disaster Tech. Sean served as Director for Incident Management Integration Policy on the US National Security Council, and is an active duty veteran of the U.S. Navy and Naval Nuclear Power Program. During his White House term under President Obama and President Trump, Sean led the Executive Office of the President and inter- agency policy coordination for major disasters and incidents. Additionally, Sean led emergency management training and exercise programs at the U.S. Department of State, Defense Logistics Agency, and National Institute of Health. He also volunteered time to Chair the Federal Sector Emergency Managers Caucus for the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), and is a leading member of the Private Sector Committee for the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA). Member of the AI2ES Industrial Advisory Board.
Susan is a graduate student at University of Washington working under Dr. Ann Bostrom to investigate risk perception and trust in AI. She has worked in emergency preparedness, risk, and vulnerability spaces in the biological sciences and earned her B.S. in environmental science and biochemistry from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania in 2018.
Job Titles:
- Program Administrator
- Program Administrator for AI2ES at the University of Oklahoma
Ms. Dubbs is the Program Administrator for AI2ES at the University of Oklahoma. She has worked at OU in varying capacities since moving to Oklahoma in 2006. Prior to her time with OU, she worked with non-profit organizations and a county government agency in Pennsylvania. She obtained her B.S. in Recreation Management from Arizona State University.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant
- Graduate Student
Tobias is a graduate research assistant and master's student working under the supervision of Dr. Amy McGovern and Dr. Corey Potvin. He graduated from the University of British Columbia in spring 2021 with a B.Sc. Combined Honours in both Atmospheric Science and Computer Science. His work is focused on developing trustworthy AI for convective weather with AI2ES and the National Severe Storms Laboratory.
Vincent Ferrera is a rising senior undergraduate student at the University of Delaware. He is pursuing a bachelor's degree in Meteorology and Climate Science, with minors in physics and computer science. This summer, he is undertaking a group project as an intern with the AI2ES, which is taking part in the 2022 NWC REU program. The goal of this project is to evaluate and/or increase trust in automatically generated labels derived from visibility and precipitation data from Mesonet images, which will be used to improve winter storm prediction. Outside of his appetite for weather, he has a knack for music, performing in his college's marching band, and likes to dive into sports analysis.
Waylon Collins is a Senior Meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office in Corpus Christi, Texas. During Mr. Collins' 30 year tenure with the NWS, he has developed expertise in the operational forecasting of meteorological, hydrological, marine, and coastal conditions, events, and phenomena to benefit aviation, marine, coastal, and fire weather interests, and to benefit the general public. In addition, Mr. Collins has issued warnings for rapidly-developing hazardous and potentially life-threatening events, and has provided decision support services to local emergency management officials in connection with forecasts of hazardous meteorological, hydrological, marine, and coastal events. Waylon has conducted research and co-authored peer-reviewed Journal articles in the areas of tornadogenesis and lightning climatology, and has collaborated with Dr. Philippe Tissot at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi for over 15 years, which resulted in the co-authorship of peer-reviewed Journal articles on the application of machine learning to thunderstorm prediction, and now fog prediction in connection with AI2ES. Waylon is a member of the American Meteorological Society Artificial Intelligence Applications to Environmental Science Committee. He obtained a MS in Atmospheric Science from the University of California-Los Angeles in 1991, and a BS in Meteorology from Texas A&M University (College Station) in 1987.
William McGovern-Fagg is an undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma double majoring in Aviation - Professional Pilot and Computer Science. He worked with Tobias Schmidt on his hail nowcasting project and is currently working on winter p-type identification through radar imagery.