Precip Folks

May 2023: Dr. Daniel Watters

NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, USA

• May23 - Dr. Daniel Watters
• Apr23 - Aimee Matland
• Mar23 - Dr. Yagmur Derin
• Feb23 - Natalia Horna
• Dec22 - Dr. Rick Schulte
• Nov22 - Julia Shates
• Oct22 - Linda Bogerd
• Sep22 - Dr. Malar Arulraj
• Aug22 - Madeline Myers
• Jul22 - Dr. Lindsey Hayden
• Jun22 - Dr. George Duffy
• May22 - Anju Vijayan Nair
• Apr22 - Fraser King
• Mar22 - Noah Brauer
• Feb22 - Dr. Diego Cerrai
• Jan22 - Dr. Antonios Mamalakis
• Dec21 - Dr. Sungmin O
• Nov21 - Dr. Shruti Upadhyaya
• Oct21 - Dr. Yoonjin Lee
• Sep21 - Dr. Lisa Milani

April 2023: Aimee Matland

PhD Student at the University of Oklahoma

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I grew up in Oklahoma and completed my bachelors and master’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Oklahoma. After working in industry as a radio frequency (RF) engineer for four and a half years I decided to return to my alma mater to pursue a very different degree: a PhD in meteorology so that I could pursue a career working at the intersection of engineering and weather.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

I remember deciding to become an electrical engineer. I wanted to understand things that I previously didn’t, like how my phone worked. What drew me to meteorology so many years later? Honestly it was largely the same driver: a desire to expand on my engineering knowledge to understand new things but this time I was more motivated to understand weather phenomena that impacted people: a larger scope beyond the instruments I was focusing on.

 

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

My master’s degree was focused on antenna design and that propelled me on a path to doing research in radio frequency hardware design and testing. Now I am studying precipitation as seen by a dual-polarization phased array radar. My perspectives on this topic have continually been evolving since I started my PhD program, and I am interested to see where they take me.

 

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

I think that technology is advancing at the same time as precipitation research with ever expanding ways to observe atmospheric processes. I see a future with more measurements utilizing the “internet of things,” communication links, machine learning techniques, improved radar spatial and temporal coverage, an increased number of satellite missions, and advancements in other technologies like lidar and radiometers. While there are challenges to be faced with an increase in measurements this means ultimately that the future holds a better representation of physical processes, microphysics, accumulation of precipitation on the ground, and weather forecasts. These improvements will filter into more informed decision making. We are just the people who will help do the work to get there.

 

• What is your favorite part of your job?

I’m excited to be entering a field where I can explore the ideas that I want to explore and ask the questions that I deem important. This is the magic of research that makes what I do fulfilling.

 

• What are some of your hobbies?

While I have others, my favorite hobby is to garden both indoors in the winter and outside when the weather is nice. Even if I’m just checking on my herb window each day it’s something that brings instant joy.

 

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

I’m inspired in different ways by all the people I have known and had the pleasure of working with throughout my career. Those people who genuinely care about others and want to see a better world are the people that tend to inspire me the most.

 
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March 2023: Dr. Yagmur Derin

Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oaklahoma

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

I am a first-generation student hence everything was new to me. I wanted to try out different topics and internships to see what I would like the best. During my undergraduate I took a wide variety of courses such as Earthquake Geology, Petroleum Geology, Hydrogeology etc. and had two different internships. The topics that struck me the most were Hydrogeology and Remote Sensing. My Hydrogeology professor was looking for an MSc graduate student for his project and the topic “Advancement of Satellite-based Rainfall Applications for Basin-Scale Hydrologic Modeling” was very exciting for me. I applied and was lucky to get the position. This is how and when my passion about satellite-based precipitation products (SPPs) started. My MSc focused on the advancement of SPPs for hydrological modeling with an emphasis on flood monitoring over a mountainous region. I analyzed and bias adjusted SPPs and applied all this information to a distributed, physically based hydrological model over Turkey. At the end of my MSc, I wanted to apply all this information not only over one region but globally.

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

I started my MSc in 2011, so I was able to experience the great success of TRMM leading to GPM and accelerating the development of new SPP algorithms. During my PhD I analyzed multiple SPPs (TRMM-era and GPM-era algorithms) against rain gauges over 11 different countries all of which were mountainous terrain. This study was the first-time effort to analyze and understand Level-3 SPPs performance around the globe over mountainous terrains. With this study we were able to understand the SPP performance at different mountainous regions. My next step was to pinpoint the sources of uncertainty that we have observed to the Level-2 retrievals. To do that I analyzed Level-2 PMW sensors against locally deployed dual polarization X-band radar precipitation estimates. Which led me to modeling Level-2 PMW retrieval uncertainty over complex terrain using machine learning methods, specifically tree-based quantile regression forest. Up to this point I have analyzed and modeled uncertainties of Level-3 and Level-2 SPPs using rain gauges and small weather radars over mountainous terrains. Next, I wanted to understand how to leverage observations and atmospheric models to improve orographic quantitative precipitation estimates. This brings me to the current day where I am understanding the physical properties of orographic precipitation and applying that information to available datasets using machine learning methods.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

It is critical in today’s world that decision makers are provided with improved precipitation estimates at a high spatiotemporal resolution since it is the primary input into any hydrological model. Currently we can measure/estimate precipitation by rain gauge networks, ground-radar networks, SPPs, and numerical weather models. Hence, one of the largest looming challenges this field faces now and, in the future, will be connecting an ever-growing dataset of ground and space-based sensors and numerical weather models to create scientifically accurate and computationally efficient precipitation estimates which can improve hydrological hazard predictive models. I can see my research heading towards closing this growing gap between the data we have and the data we use to inform predictive models and decision makers. This in return will improve the accuracy and speed of hydrological models which will enhance communities’ preparedness to natural disasters particularly over challenging and weakly characterized regions such as mountainous and coastal regions.

• What is your favorite part of your job?

I would say exploring and learning new things. I am so excited to dig deep and learn more about physical properties of orographic precipitation. Also, I think it is absolutely amazing to share my discoveries with the scientific community and learn other people’s discoveries.

• What are some of your hobbies?

Hiking with my dog over the weekends is my ultimate joy. I also enjoy board games, puzzles, knitting, cross stitching and baking bread very much.

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

There is so much to learn from everything and everyone around me. But specifically, I am inspired by my advisors, Dr. Pierre Kirstetter, Prof. Manos Anagnostou and Dr. Koray K. Yilmaz. Without their guidance the academic world would be almost impossible to navigate, I appreciate them so much!

You can find me at:

Twitter: @yagderinPhD

Personal Webpage: https://dryagmurderin.com/

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February 2023: Natalia Horna

PhD Student at the University of Waterloo

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

In my childhood I traveled a lot around Ecuador to visit my family. Because the roads and bridges were in such bad shape it took forever to get to our destination. So, I decided to become a Civil Engineer to help fix them, but while I was studying I realized that Climatological and Hydrological Information were the key for better and long lasting designs. Being that such information had low quality, I got interested in Remote Sensing and reanalysis products.

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

I find it fascinating how remote sensing products keep improving! Better spatio-temporal resolution and coverage, with lower biases. Also, it is remarkable how researchers are creating blended products for specific applications.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

I hope that the development of research, all kinds of it, will help reduce the gaps in information in all the world, and reduce the barrier that still exists.

• What is your favorite part of your job?

All the networking that comes with being a researcher. My main goal is to be able to share what I do with my country. So, I keep in contact with my colleagues back home and we keep collaborating and exchanging ideas. 

• What are some of your hobbies?

I enjoy playing soccer, but to stay active in winter I have to stick to volleyball. When I’m feeling lazy, there is nothing better than board games and puzzles at home with my kids. A way I miss my family and my culture a bit less is by cooking Ecuadorian food, because I love to eat.

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

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December 2022: Dr. Rick Schulte

Postdoctoral Scholar at Colorado State University

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I grew up mostly in East Tennessee, but moved to Colorado when I was in high school. I double majored in physics and mathematics at Santa Clara University in California. From there I spent a year as a high school teacher in Micronesia before returning to Colorado to earn my Ph.D. in atmospheric science at Colorado State University.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

I was interested in weather from a young age, and would eagerly read the National Weather Service forecast discussions searching for any hint of snow in the forecast (snow days were few and far between in Tennessee!). During college, I had a summer internship at Remote Sensing Systems (Santa Rosa, CA) and it was there I realized just how broad and important a field satellite meteorology is. I really enjoy working in a field that synthesizes much of the theoretical knowledge I learned in college but that also has a direct impact on people’s lives.

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

Most of my work has involved satellite retrievals, but it has expanded to include a wide variety of satellite instruments and atmospheric processes! When I first began my Master’s degree, I was focused on the retrieval of water vapor and cloud water from an experimental passive microwave radiometer, TEMPEST-D. During my time as a Ph.D. candidate, I studied light rain using a combination of passive instruments plus active spaceborne radars. Now I am studying deep convection, and have had to learn about the world of modeling!

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

I think CubeSats and SmallSats offer tremendous opportunities to retrieve precipitation from space with much better global coverage and temporal resolution and with lower costs. They can also help us to better understand the processes driving precipitation. I am working on one process-driven SmallSat mission right now, INCUS, and I’m excited to see where our work takes us. I also think that machine learning methods are rapidly maturing in our field.

• What is your favorite part of your job?

I love the fact that every day is different! I am constantly learning new things, and in some cases, I am the first person to learn it. It’s really exciting to be constantly learning about other people’s discoveries while sharing my own discoveries with the scientific community.

• What are some of your hobbies?

I am an avid runner, cyclist, and skier. I also enjoy playing board games, watching college basketball, reading legal thrillers, and baking!

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

I credit my parents for encouraging me in all of my pursuits and for being loving, hardworking, dependable role models. My wife Allie is a brilliant engineer in the medical field who inspires me everyday. We love doing puzzles together and sharing trivia that we have learned, and I think the intellectual curiosity that we foster in each other is really important for being a good scientist. Finally, I’m very thankful for both my graduate advisor, Dr. Chris Kummerow, and my postdoc mentor, Dr. Sue van den Heever. They are both groundbreaking scientists who nevertheless have always made time for me and opened the door to countless opportunities.

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November 2022: Julia Shates

PhD student at UW-Madison Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I am from Southern California. For my undergrad, I studied Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine. The Earth System Science program was very interdisciplinary- so I learned about the atmosphere, but also so many interactions at different scales in the climate system. I also did a double major in Spanish with a focus on literature, analyzing prose and poetry from the 16th and 17th century!

 

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

I have always been interested in the natural world - and I was first introduced to environmental studies and climate science in a class in high school. I didn't know where those interests would take me until studying at UC Irvine. 

 

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

When I first started doing research as an undergraduate, I was looking at large scale patterns and atmospheric variability associated with storminess in the southern hemisphere high latitudes. This experience led me to be especially interested in high-latitude precipitation. In graduate school, I started working with ground-based remote sensing observations and surface measurements of precipitation for mid- and high-latitude sites. My work is focused on near surface precipitation processes within the "satellite radar blind zone." We have nearly global satellite radar observations, but precipitation measurements near the surface can be obscured because of ground clutter. This means that shallow snowfall or melting layers near the surface could be undetected.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

Ground-based radar and surface measurements are valuable for both preparing for future satellite observing systems and assessing current satellite observations and precipitation retrievals. I would love to continue working on the challenges of observing clouds and precipitation in different ways. I'd like to expand upon ground-based insights on precipitation phase identification, developing retrievals, and validating satellite measurements.  

 

• What is your favorite part of your job?

Learning new things about the atmosphere! As a graduate researcher, my job is to learn about clouds and precipitation and how we measure it. And with that knowledge, we can improve our measurements and estimates of the water cycle and how it's changing.

 

• What are some of your hobbies?

In the summer and fall, I explore lakes and wetlands by canoe/kayak/stand-up-paddle. In the winter, I cross country ski and snowshoe. Once I open a science fiction or fantasy book, it's nearly impossible for me to put it down. When I'm not doing research, exploring, or reading, I like doing crafty things like wood burning, painting, and knitting. 

 

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

So many people! My friends and family definitely inspire me. And, I am happy to say that all of my mentors/advisors have inspired and supported me. 

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October 2022: Linda Bogerd

PhD candidate at Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands.

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

Currently, I am living in Wageningen, a small, cute city in the east of the Netherlands. Originally I am from Rotterdam. For my studies I moved across the Netherlands as I went to the Utrecht University, Leiden University, the Technical University (TU) in Delft and finished my MSc degree in Climate Physics at the Utrecht University again. My MSc thesis was focused on Arctic precipitation variability in different climates. From October 2022 I will live for three months in the United States (Fort Collins and Maryland) for my PhD, something I look forward to!

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

Climate change was getting more and more attention, while at the same time I noticed many unsustainable production processes. Hence, I started with a joint Masters at the Leiden University and the TU Delft: Industrial Ecology. It is focused on the energy and production flows, their effects on the climate, and increasing their sustainability. The further I got, the more I realized I was interested in why something was better for the atmosphere and how the atmosphere actually worked.

After completing the first year I decided to switch to the Master Climate Physics – and I am very happy I did. I enjoyed to finally understand more about meteorology. Clouds and precipitation interested me quickly due to their complexity. During my MSc thesis on modeled precipitation variability, I realized how many processes associated with precipitation and clouds are still relatively unknown and that the output of a model is never better than the input you start with. I realized I would love to contribute by decreasing the uncertainty related to both cloud and precipitation formation by studying and improving observations. Then I encountered the vacancy of my current PhD... and here we are ;). 

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

I am not that long in the field yet. I think, and I am a big supporter of this, science started to be more open. Open science can help to improve and understand phenomena more sooner as it becomes a joint effort. Open Python packages are available to which everyone can contribute and use. This created the opportunity to sooner implement novel techniques in applications due to collaboration of people all over the world. The Global Precipitation Measurement mission is a great example of open-science. The data is openly accessible, the algorithms are well documented.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

I think that deep learning techniques will stay important for many algorithms and models. However, at the same time, I think we will realize that physical understanding is important as well. I expect that the future will have a combination of both physical and deep learning models to increase our understanding about difficult processes such as shallow precipitation and snowfall.

• What is your favorite part of your job?

The never ending possibility to learn, both in coding as well as understanding physical processes. Additionally, the topic we study is a vital part of our society: fresh water. I feel grateful to work on something that is so crucial for society. Furthermore, I really enjoy teaching and supervising students. It urges you to really understand your topic, otherwise you cannot explain it. I especially like to teach programming courses, even more so when it is their first hands-on experience with coding. 

• What are some of your hobbies?

Running, hiking, and cycling are my main hobbies. I recently started with bouldering, which I also thoroughly enjoy. And I am learning how to play the violin. Furthermore, I love cooking, traveling, and going to concerts. And still there are so many things left that I would like to do!

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

First of all, my mum, who managed to be both a mother and father for my brother and me while having a full-time job. Karin van der Wiel, a female scientist working in the meteorological field who I not only see as a great scientist, but also feels like a mentor. And my current supervisors, Remko Uijlenhoet, Hidde Leijnse, and Aart Overeem. They are not only guiding me in the process of becoming a scientist, but also make sure I develop as a person.

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September 2022: Dr. Malar Arulraj

Postdoctoral Associate, Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I am from Chennai, the southernmost metropolitan city of India. I did my undergraduate in Electrical and Communication Engineering from Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore. Then, motivated by the interdisciplinary application of signal processing, I pursued my Master's in Climate Science at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. I moved to the US in 2014 and obtained my Ph.D. from Duke University.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

As an electrical engineer by training, I was more interested in dissecting real-world data that represents natural phenomena and serves a wider population on a day-to-day basis. At a very young age, living in a coastal town with a unique climate, I was fascinated by the unpredictability of severe storms. Consequently, I decided to inter-delve my interest in signal processing with my curiosity about weather processes to begin my research journey.  

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

It has been around ten years since I started working in the field of atmospheric science and hydrology. This is a very vast field with lots of opportunities for work, thanks to the highly chaotic nature of weather and hydrological processes. When I started working in this field, there was very little amount of work exploring the application of advanced statistical methods to study the complex physics involved in hydrological process. It is now amazing to see plenty of research works using machine learning and other statistical techniques to uncover and explore interesting problems.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

Andrew Ng, one of the prominent figures in the field of AI, recently said, "AI has reached a point where data is more important than models." I feel the field of hydrology and hydrometeorology is also headed in the same direction. We need more ground observations (like crowd-sourced data) with high temporal and spatial density supporting the existing and upcoming satellite missions to explore and develop more trustworthy and robust models for the operational monitoring and forecasts of precipitation. I think in the future, precipitation remote sensing and retrievals will head towards coupled data-oriented and physics-based methods. 

• What is your favorite part of your job?

I love every aspect of my job. I love that no day is the same as the previous, and every day involves lots of exploring and learning. I am now working on an automated satellite precipitation validation system (please check out https://precip-val.umd.edu/), and through this project, I get to learn aspects of webpage development using Python which is orthogonal to my research but fascinating. There are also many opportunities to continuously learn and develop new skills, including fieldwork, data handling, satellite retrievals, coding, writing, and soft skills. I also get to mentor and work closely with undergraduate students during summer terms, and it is amazing to learn different aspects of the same problems from the students. 

• What are some of your hobbies?

My hobbies keep adapting with time. I like to explore and learn new skills. I love cooking, gardening, oil, and acrylic painting. I have been experimenting with different cuisine foods since childhood. Baking has become a passion after coming to the US, and I try to bake unique confectionaries and cakes for myself and my friends' special occasions. Inspired by a friend and with the help of YouTube tutorials, I have taught myself crocheting. The next on my bucket list is pottery and quilting. Hopefully will get to learn those soon!

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

My family was the first inspiration and motivation. I admire my Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Ana Barros, for her hard work, consistency, and perseverance. I also look up to my Master's advisor from IISc, Dr. V. Venugopal, for his detailed approach to research problems. All my advisors, friends, and colleagues made a positive impact and are a great motivation for me to continue working in research.

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August 2022: Madeline Myers

PhD Candidate at Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I’m originally from Louisiana and completed both my BSc and MSc at Louisiana State University in Geology. During my BSc I studied fault reactivation from glacier unloading and acceleration of the retreat of the Ross Ice Shelf since the Last Glacier Maximum. For my MSc, I researched snowfall in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. I’m now pursuing a PhD at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada studying ice-climate interactions in the Canadian high-Arctic. 

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

During my BSc, I had the opportunity to embark on a research cruise in Antarctica studying the Ross Ice Shelf retreat. It was here that I fell in love with the cryosphere. As I learned more about glaciers, sea level rise and their implications for the Louisiana coastline, I wanted to better understand the climate controls on glacier mass change, especially melt. 

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

In 2014, as an undergraduate modeling lithospheric stresses, my mentor and supervisor taught me a great deal about the research process and is the reason I wanted to continue with modeling. The Antarctic research cruise solidified my interest in glacier processes, but I wanted to focus on shorter timescales and the climate impact on current glacier change. During my MSc, I studied recent trends in snowfall in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. While this project satisfied my desire to better understand hydrometeorology, I wanted to focus back on modeling the glacier impact. Finally, the project for my PhD modeling ice-climate interactions has been a perfect synthesis of the areas of research that I most enjoy. 

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

As the climate is changing, local feedbacks are also changing. Local meteorological processes affecting glacier mass change may be suppressed or amplified (e.g., increased coastal snowfall). I’d like to understand how these processes are evolving to improve our projections of glacier mass change.

• What is your favorite part of your job?

For most people it is probably the research itself. While I love my field, the most fulfilling part is sharing my research with others. My home state of Louisiana is one of the lowest ranked states in education (~48/50) and most residents don’t recognize climate change as a fact, let alone feel the need to do something about it or feel able to do something about it. I hope by sharing my research with people living in places like Louisiana I can mitigate the impact of climate change by encouraging others to reduce their carbon footprint.

• What are some of your hobbies?

I really enjoy board games, crossword puzzles, and trivia nights with friends. Camping, hiking, and traveling are also a big part of my life and I try to include my dog, George, on those trips. When I’m not hanging out with friends, I enjoy reading cheesy adventure novels, working on my crocheting skills, and sharing research through the Skype a Scientist program.

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

Firstly, my supervisors have played a positive role in shaping my career as a scientist. Their dedication to their work and belief in me have encouraged my own dedication to research and shaped me into not only a good scientist, but a good person. Day-to-day, though, my inspiration comes from the underserved highschool students that I had the pleasure of mentoring during my MSc. Even after their long weekend at work or long day at school, they showed up every week to work on a research project that betters their community. It’s their dedication to their future and their community that encourages me to do better, more impactful science.

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July 2022: Dr. Lindsey J. Hayden

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I’m from Oregon, originally, but grew up in Colorado, just north of Denver. I got my bachelors in meteorology there at Metropolitan State University of Denver. I then got a masters at Saint Louis University studying the difference between satellite observed and climate model simulated cloud fraction. I then studied satellite observed clouds and precipitation at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi and received my PhD this spring.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

Since I first started researching, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite was launched. There have also been quite a few advancements in geostationary satellite technology and precipitation retrieval algorithms. Both of these allow for better study of precipitation at mid and high latitudes, especially over the ocean.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

• What is your favorite part of your job?

Learning new things. I prefer the research aspect because working to solve problems and make new discoveries is always so exciting. I feel that this is where I can make the greatest contribution with the skills that I have. It has been interesting learning the data assimilation side of things and working on an entirely new (to me) application of satellite data.

• What are some of your hobbies?

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

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June 2022: Dr. George Duffy

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I’m from a lot of places. I was born in New York City and I moved to Nashville, TN when I was 13. I got a Bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, a Master’s degree in atmospheric science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and my doctorate in Earth and Environmental Science from Vanderbilt University in Nashville. My first job was in Los Angeles at the Caltech/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and I’m currently living in Syracuse N.Y.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

My research area has evolved a lot! When I started my research, remote sensing of snowfall was largely restricted to cloud-ice or Rayleigh (long radar-wavelength) measurements of snowfall. Millimeter wavelength measurements can be conducted with higher sensitivity from some remote sensing platforms and they can reveal structural information on snowflakes hidden to Rayleigh reflectivity. However, models of common aggregating snowflakes were often limited to “homogeneous” scattering models which would reduce the crystalline intricacies of a snowflake into a mushed flying-saucer shape. By the time my dissertation was complete, numerous models were developed that could resolve complicated realistic and fractal shapes through the full range of observable snowflakes. My dissertation research, as well as a few other contemporary studies, were able to successfully evaluate simulations from these scattering models with collocated observations of cloud reflectivity. Now we can invert these models to estimate snowflake properties from practically any sort of reflectivity measurement. 

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

• What are some of your hobbies?

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

May 2022: Anju Vijayan Nair

Anju Vijayan Nair is a Ph.D. Student in Civil Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology. Her current research is focused on understanding the impact of hydroclimatic extremes (precipitation and temperature) on the water resources of glacierized catchments in High Mountain Asia.

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I am originally from the state of Kerala in India. Kerala is located in the southwest of India and is popularly known as 'God's own Country' for its stunning natural beauty. I completed my Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and Master's degree in Environmental Engineering from the College of Engineering Trivandrum, Kerala. After working as an Adhoc teaching faculty for one year in Kerala, I moved to the United States (US) to pursue my doctoral studies in Civil Engineering. I started my doctoral studies at Mississippi State University (MSU), focusing on assessing the water-energy-food nexus in the context of desalination for agriculture. Later I transferred to Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) to work with Dr. Efthymios Nikolopoulos on understanding the impact of climate change on the water resources of High Mountain Asia.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

During my undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering, I was introduced to Environmental Engineering and areas related to it. Solving environmental issues requires a solid understanding of environmental science and technology and its social and economic impacts, which motivated me to pursue my Masters in Environmental Engineering. As part of my MS thesis, I visited coastal areas in Kerala and investigated the potential use of silver nanoparticles for removing salinity in household drinking water samples. Later, when I joined for doctoral studies at FIT, I received exposure to hydrology and related research areas, including glacio-hydrological modeling, hydroclimatology, and remote sensing, which are fundamental for studying the earth's surface and sub-surface processes. This further paved my research interests.

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

I started my research journey during my Master's, where I was primarily looking into studying issues associated with drinking water in coastal areas and proposing sustainable solutions for the desalination of drinking water. Following that, I had the opportunity to work with Professors Farrokh Mistree and Janet K. Allen at the University of Oklahoma, and SunMoksha, a socio-technical enterprise in India, on a sustainable rural development project focusing on the water-energy-food nexus. The project helped enhance my intrinsic affinity for investigating environmental issues and their implications on socio-economic systems. After joining MSU, I worked with Dr. Veera Gnaneswar Gude on the modeling of water-energy-food nexus in the context of desalination of water for agricultural uses. As part of my doctoral studies at FIT, I am currently involved in the NASA High Mountain Asia Project, where my goal is to understand how the hydroclimatic extremes affect the water resources of glacierized catchments in Nepal and their effects on the downstream community.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

Water, energy, and food are the primary resources required for life. My previous collaborations introduced me to the concept of water-energy-food nexus, which is central to sustainable development and is of utmost importance now. I envision myself evaluating the impact of climate change on water, energy, and food security by using state-of-the-art climate products and modeling techniques. Understanding the impact of changing water resources on the downstream community is of particular interest to me. I strongly believe in the role of education in positively impacting society. I believe in sharing to gain, and I look forward to bringing positive changes to the community with the knowledge and expertise I will be gaining through my research career.

• What is your favorite part of your job?

Being a part of the NASA High Mountain Asia Team, I got opportunities to interact and collaborate with many senior professionals and fellow researchers from across the globe. This collaboration has been an immense learning experience and helped me acquire skills and knowledge to move forward in my research domain. I believe attending conferences, presenting our research to the community, sharing our work in the form of research papers, and getting to know the work of other experts in our field is the best part of being a researcher.

• What are some of your hobbies?

Besides research, I am interested in singing, drawing, and cooking. I am a classical music vocalist trained in Carnatic music, a system of music associated with southern India. Being raised in a coastal state back in India and currently residing in the "sunshine state," I love beaches!

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

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April 2022: Fraser King

Fraser King is a PhD.c at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. His current research focuses on the intersection of remote sensing and machine learning for estimating surface precipitation (with a focus on snow). His previous work examined the application of satellite data to characterize uncertainty and bias in current gridded precipitation datasets across Arctic regions.

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

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March 2022: Noah Brauer

Noah Brauer is a Ph.D. candidate and Graduate Research Assistant in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma studying polarimetric radar observations and precipitation microphysics in tropical cyclones.

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

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February 2022: Dr. Diego Cerrai

Dr. Diego Cerrai is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Connecticut, and Manager of the Eversource Energy Center.

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I am from Livorno, a city located on the coast of Tuscany, Italy. I received a bachelor degree in Physics from the University of Pisa. I then moved to Bologna, where I studied Physics of the Earth System for my master degree, with a particular focus on dynamical patterns leading to the formation of Mediterranean Hurricanes. I completed my education at the University of Connecticut, where I obtained a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, by focusing on weather-related power outage prediction using machine learning models.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

I’ve always liked the weather. When I was a child, I asked my parents to place a weather station at my home in Italy, and they bought one for me. Now that I am in the United States, my parents keep recording temperatures and weather conditions every day for me. Snow is the element I love the most, but I am attracted by any type of extreme weather events because I want to investigate their characteristics, to improve their predictability and mitigate their impacts. Right now, I am doing what I’ve always wanted to do, and specifically: (i) improving the understanding, representation and predictability of severe weather events through data assimilation; (ii) developing AI models for predicting the impact of weather events on the electric grid and on our forests; (iii) understanding how weather prediction uncertainty propagates into an uncertainty on their impacts.

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

When I started working on the UConn Outage Prediction Model (OPM), there was just a patent, and a model which worked in theory, but with limited skills in practice. I had a hard time in my first two years as a Ph.D. student to understand why the model was not performing, and I finally realized that the problem was that, through my knowledge, I needed to help the machine learning models in finding patterns that the models were not able to find themselves. This is what is called Physics Enhanced Artificial Intelligence (PEAI). Through my studies, I brought the physical understanding into infrastructure impact modeling, and many researchers now are following this path. Specifically, it is a general belief that adding more data improves machine learning modeling. In my studies, I found that slicing the data through physical understanding of processes (therefore decreasing the amount of data) significantly improves machine learning modeling. Now the UConn OPM is operationally used by some utilities along the U.S. East Coast to predict power outages in advance of storms.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

Since this area of research is just a few years old, there are a lot of open questions which need to be answered. I expect this research to have explosive growth in the next decade, but I have no idea what the future holds.

• What is your favorite part of your job?

Operationally predicting power outages for millions of people, by blending my personal knowledge of weather phenomena and their impacts with the outage model results. And the possibility to validate my predictions every day. When I make a prediction, the day after I can see what went wrong and why, and try to understand where to improve and to avoid the same error in the future. 

• What are some of your hobbies?

My favorite hobby is fishing! I like fishing everywhere: in lakes, rivers, streams, at the sea…but I haven’t tried ice fishing yet! I also like to collect mushrooms, and chestnuts.

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

My advisors. I feel very lucky because I always found advisors who were able to inspire me and push the envelope, by encouraging me to go beyond my limits and test innovative ideas. I am grateful to them!

You can find me at:

Twitter: @diego_cerrai

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January 2022: Dr. Antonios Mamalakis

Dr. Antonios Mamalakisis a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, working on explainable artificial intelligence applied to climate science.

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I am Greek and was born and raised in Rethymno, a town in the island of Crete in southern Greece. I studied civil and environmental engineering with focus on stochastic hydrology and hydroclimatology in the University of Patras, Greece, where I received both my diploma and MSc, and in the University of California, Irvine, where I received my PhD in Sep 2020.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

As a kid, I was fascinated by math and wanted to become a mathematician, but while growing up, I started being more interested in applied mathematics and engineering. Later, during my undergraduate studies, I became interested in the water cycle and hydrology in general, and wanted to understand more about precipitation variability. During my graduate studies in Greece and the US, I worked on the statistical modeling of precipitation and extreme events, risk assessment, and to enhance understanding of the physical drivers of regional hydroclimate and increase predictability. Water is the most important aspect for life as we know it, and precipitation is the main input to the water cycle. Thus, understanding precipitation variability, its physical drivers (natural or external forcings) and increasing predictability across scales will always be my main area of research.  

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

I have been doing research on hydroclimatology for about 6 years now. Thus, not so many things have changed since I started. The general questions of the field (physical modelling of precipitation across scales, statistical representation of extreme events, climate change impacts, predictability, precipitation retrieval etc.) are still challenging and of high interest to the community, although progress has been made in many subfields. Research questions or objectives that were not as big 6 years ago include climate predictability on sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) timescales and the use of artificial intelligence and deep learning to solve all kinds of problems in hydroclimatology and geosciences in general. With regard to S2S, the main source of predictability is the Madden-Jullian Oscillation, and many researchers have been exploring its potential to push the envelope of climate predictability on S2S timescales during the last decade. With regard to the use of artificial intelligence (and specifically deep learning), many scientists in recent years have explored and highlighted its potential and predictive ability. I think it is definitely a new tool that needs to be added in the toolbox of any scientist.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

I think that the use of artificial intelligence in our field is here to stay. Big questions for this decade include how to increase its trustworthiness, robustness and interpretability, and to develop knowledge-guided or physics-constrained methods. Second, compound events and their predictability have recently been and will continue to be a hot topic in the next decades. Lastly, the representation in climate models of precipitation variability in fine spatiotemporal scales has been and will remain a challenge for the foreseeable future. 

• What is your favorite part of your job?

Since I was a little kid, I have been very passionate about figuring things out, whether this was the answer to a simple math problem in elementary school or understanding an unexpected/complex result in my research. The process of testing hypotheses and the pursuit of the unknown satisfy my scientific curiosity and bring to me the biggest sense of completeness I could ever get in any of the professions. Thus, I guess that being a researcher is a good fit for me :)

• What are some of your hobbies?

There are many ways that I spend my spare time. First, I have to admit that I am very cinephile. I love watching movies, talking about movies, and reading critiques about movies. I like learning about cinema history, and making predictions about the Oscars. I also like to workout and try new sports. Lastly, I like singing and if I was not a researcher, I would probably be a mediocre singer somewhere back in Greece.

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

Many people have inspired me since I was a kid. This includes math and physics teachers in elementary/high school, university professors, my academic advisors and mentors in Greece and in the US, but also people I never met, like historical scientific figures and prominent climate scientists and engineers of our days. It would be unfair to mention only a few of them; it is such a huge list!  

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December 2021: Dr. Sungmin O

Dr. Sungmin O is a Research Professor at Ewha Womans University in Korea. 

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

Hi! I am from Pittsburgh, but I don't remember there very well, so I will say that I am from Korea (I came to Korea when I was five years old). I studied environmental engineering and Hydrometeorology for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, respectively, in Seoul, and then I worked in industry (consulting firm) for a while. When I decided to return to academia, I started my PhD studies at the University of Graz in Austria where my research in Hydrology/precipitation began. 

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

I chose the Hydrometeorology lab for my master studies among many other labs in the environmental engineering department, because I thought predicting the weather with a computer is cool! My master's research topic definitely influenced me to choose Meteorology for my Ph.D. after many years in the industry (industry people always asked me if I studied Meteorology to be a weather reporter, haha). I worked on the topic of precipitation during my PhD, and further on soil moisture and drought during my postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Germany. 

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

Extreme hydrometeorological events (e.g. heavy rainfall, floods, droughts) are being reported more and more frequently under the changing climate. Recent development in satellite sensors has begun providing a new opportunity, together with machine learning-based methods which can efficiently handle massive datasets, to obtain empirical evidence for understanding weather and climate extremes across regions. I have worked on satellite precipitation datasets to analyse their uncertainty, especially in observing heavy rainfall events. I am also interested in the propagation of precipitation uncertainty into other land hydrological variables through modelling. Currently, I am working to understand the rapid intensification of drought using observational-based data and machine learning algorithms. 

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

I believe that the use of machine learning in Hydrology and Earth science in general will be more and more popular in the next few years. We know that physically-based and machine-learning models have their own pros and cons; check out my paper on this topic ;) LINK. I think in the future, the so-called “hybrid modeling” or “hybrid approach”, combining physics and deep learning, will become one of the key methodologies to tackle challenges of hydrology research. 

• What is your favorite part of your job?

I like research because I can work at my own pace. When I was at a consulting firm, I felt I was delivering outputs just to meet the deadlines set by clients, without deep understanding. However, in research, I work on studies that are driven by my own curiosity, and developed at my own pace. So, I enjoy the whole process of research, e.g. formulating questions, programming during night, discussing results with colleagues, publishing papers, and so on. 

• What are some of your hobbies?

I enjoy riding a bike. I started long-distance riding when I was in Jena, Germany, because there was nothing else to do, haha. Since I came back to Korea, I started ‘Bike Passport’ - if you collect stamps from all of the bike trails across the country, you will get a medal! 

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

Every person who loves their job including my supervisors, colleagues, and friends. Especially, female scientists like my mom who are leaders in their family and work inspired me a lot.

You can find me at, 

Twitter: @sungminoo

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November 2021: Dr. Shruti A. Upadhyaya

Dr. Shruti A. Upadhyaya is a postdoc at Advanced Radar Research Center, University of Oklahoma.

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I am from a small city in the southern part of India called Bijapur (Now known as Vijayapura). It is a historically significant, beautiful city with several famous monuments (FYI Gol Gumbaz is one of the ancient largest domes and I recommend visiting :) ). 

Professionally, I am a Civil Engineer who then went on to pursue higher studies in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Science (GIS). I did my undergraduate from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India, and Master’s and Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

I have always been motivated to serve society through my work. My training as a Civil Engineer pulled me towards better monitoring and modeling of hydro-meteorological variables using remote sensing observations. During my master’s, I explored a bit on retrieving evapo-transpiration using satellite observations. At the start of my Ph.D., I focused on precipitation from satellite observations with some validation studies across the Indian region. However,  given the dearth of ground observational networks in India and around the world, it did not take long to realize the need for near-real time observations of precipitation, specifically for flash flood monitoring. With my team, I started to develop precipitation retrieval models with low-latency observations from Kalpana-1 Indian geostationary satellite (GEO). Since then I have been working in this domain with new generation GEO satellites such as GOES-R using advanced statistical and machine learning tools and techniques.  

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

The launch of NOAA’s latest generation of GOES-R series of satellites has opened new opportunities in quantifying precipitation rates as high as 5 min temporal resolution. The challenge is to take advantage of this ever-increasing volume of environmental data collected from these satellites and the growing list of new sensors. With my team, we are working towards probabilistic quantitative precipitation estimation with geostationary satellites by effectively utilizing their unique strengths and focusing on developing trustworthy and interpretable AI models.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

As I mentioned, I have always wished my research to be directly beneficial to society. I truly wish to see the model we have been developing to be supporting operational precipitation products and contributing towards improving forecasting of precipitation-related disasters such as flash floods and reducing aggravated societal and economic consequences. Having said that, the transition from research to operations is critical until hydrologists and meteorologists trust the AI techniques. By tracking the progression made by the community over the past few years, I foresee more of an AI-driven modeling/forecasting of hydrometeorological variables in an operational environment in near future. 

• What is your favorite part of your job?

I enjoy every part of my job, working with amazing people motivates me to strive for perfection. Waking up to the new challenges every day, be it a coding issue or learning a new concept, keeps me active and focused. Discussing with peers, reading incredible work by our precipitation community drives my enthusiasm to the next level.  

• What are some of your hobbies?

I am a trained dancer in an Indian classical dance form called “Kathak”. Although I am unable to practice these days, I enjoy any form of dancing. I love cooking and traveling :) 

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

There is so much to learn from everything and everyone around me. If I have to list a few, my first inspiration as a student was my family, and all my advisors Prof. E.P. Rao, Prof. RAAJ Ramsankaran, and Prof. Pierre Kirstetter, everyone has uniquely inspired me. 

You can find me at, 

Twitter: @ShrutiUpad20; 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shruti-upadhyaya-418023158 

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October 2021: Dr. Yoonjin Lee

Dr. Yoonjin Lee is a postdoc at Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA).

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I’m from Seoul, South Korea. I got my bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering at Ewha Womans University, but during my undergraduate years, I had a chance to study in France. I studied science at Université de Cergy-Pontoise (currently changed to CY Cergy Paris University) for a year and then transferred to Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie to study biology for another year. I received master’s and Ph.D. degrees in atmospheric science at Colorado State University.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

I was initially into biology, but I realized I’m not good at lab work because I’m not very cautious and always make mistakes during lab experiments. When I was seeking for other topics that might be interesting, I took hydrometeorology class, and I got into climate/meteorology world. During my internship at hydrometeorology lab, my research focused on wildfire with changing climate, and I felt that I needed to study weather first to better understand climate. As I changed my major to atmospheric science in graduate school, I was influenced by my undergraduate advisor whose expertise was in data assimilation, and I wanted to learn more about data assimilation. Since satellite is one of the most common observations used in data assimilation, my research has been focusing on retrieving cloud properties from a satellite for data assimilation. 

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

My master’s thesis was about evaluating impacts of assimilating retrieved products from Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite to improve hurricane forecasts. After my master, I shifted gears and started to work with a geostationary satellite. Although it’s hard to get much information below cloud top from visible and infrared sensors on a geostationary satellite, it is still beneficial as it provides data over land and ocean in very high spatiotemporal resolutions. If we can get information of convective clouds from a geostationary satellite, it’d be extremely useful in initiating convection especially over the ocean where we lack observation. Therefore, my Ph.D. dissertation focused on detecting convection from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) -16, obtaining latent heating from those detected convective clouds, and finally using the retrieved latent heating to initiate convection in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Meanwhile, I got into machine learning, and part of my dissertation includes applying a machine learning model to detect convection. I’m planning to continue using more machine learning methods to do various things throughout my post-doc.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

I think that machine learning model is a powerful tool that allows us to extract more information from satellite data. We have plenty of satellite data, and it makes a perfect training dataset for machine learning model which requires large number of training data. Also, using machine learning methods can help reduce computational time for a complex problem such as model parameterization or data assimilation. However, we have to be very cautious when using machine learning model, and take it with a grain of salt because it might not mean anything physical. Thus, I think being able to explain how or why the model works will be as important as developing a machine learning model. 

• What is your favorite part of your job?

I’ve been enjoying working as a postdoc because I got to collaborate with many researchers in different fields and explore various things. I like going to a conference or a workshop not just because I learn a lot from other people’s talk and get motivated by them, but also because I get to explore places that I never thought of visiting. I usually enjoy spending some time in the city after a conference. 

• What are some of your hobbies?

I used to like playing tennis and hiking, but having my shoulder frequently dislocated and having some issues in my foot, I started to do things that don’t require much activity. I like everything related to art or music. I enjoy going to art museums and concerts. I also like to paint, and recently I started to customize shoes. 

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

My two advisors inspired me the most. They both achieved so many things in their careers, yet they are constantly exploring new things and still very passionate about their research. They showed me how to become a good person as well as a good scientist. 

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September 2021: Dr. Lisa Milani

Dr. Lisa Milani is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) - University of Maryland, working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

• Where are you from, where did you receive your education, and what in?

I am from Rovigo, a little town in between Venice and Bologna, in the north east of Italy. I did all my studies in Ferrara, a town not far from mine, a master degree in astrophysics first and a PhD in atmospheric science then.

• What first got you interested in the topics you chose to study?

I started my career in atmospheric science more by chance than choice, but after so many years I am really happy I got involved in it. The first few years of research were more driven by funding availability than choice, so I had to find a compromise between what I liked and the projects available at the time. The game changer for really understanding what I like to do was my experience at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Sciences in Rome where I started working on snowfall retrievals and I loved it! Snowfall has been my work topic since then.

• How has your area of research evolved since you first started doing research?

I’ve been working on snowfall retrievals for almost 8 years now. Doing snowfall retrievals from active and passive microwave sensors is not easy and a lot still has to be done. Every day presents new challenges but on the other side many challenges from yesterday are addressed and solved. The snowfall studies field is very dynamic, and thanks to better computational capabilities we are now addressing issues that were not even imaginable 10 years ago. During my PhD, for example, I worked on precipitation retrievals using artificial neural networks in a time in which not so many people liked the idea of trusting machine calculations for realistic results. Nowadays machine learning techniques are widely used and continuously developed because we probably hit the limits of solely physical methodologies. As I said, it is a continuous evolution of tools and understanding.

• Where do you see your area of research headed in the future?

Snowfall is one of the current main challenges in the precipitation community and many more scientists are investing their energies in it. I see myself working on this topic for several more years, probably taking advantage of new available sensors in the future, which will provide several answers, but at the same time will also present new unknowns and challenges.

• What is your favorite part of your job?

I love interacting with people, I feel energized after workshops and conferences seeing how much there is still to do out there. And right after that I really enjoy the data analysis, that point in which you keep producing results from data to make a story about it and answer all the questions that arise in the process. 

• What are some of your hobbies?

I have hundreds of hobbies, I stopped counting them. I get excited for almost everything and I love to learn new things. I love to cook, knit, crochet, sew, hiking, backpacking, biking, yoga, play board games, learning languages.. Should I continue?

• Who has inspired you most throughout your career?

Everything started with my physics teacher in high school, she was really inspirational and in fact I studied physics at university. There are few key persons that inspired me after that, either as mentors or as great scientists. Let’s say, everyday I keep learning from the best! 

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