NIU "Met" attends the 13th Severe Storms and Doppler Radar Conference

Nine undergraduate students, four graduate students, NIU Staff Meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste, and Dr. Ashley attended the 13th Annual Severe Storms and Doppler Radar Conference in West Des Moines, IA on April 2nd-4th, 2009. This year's conference was held at the West Des Moines Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center and provided three days of exciting talks on all aspects of severe weather.

NIU's contingent at the conference!

NIU students highlighted their own research by presenting three separate posters, including:

• “Radar Morphology of Fatal Convective Straight-line Wind Events” by Joe Schoen (NIU) and Walker Ashley (NIU); this work illustrates preliminary results from Joe’s thesis, which is examining the storm morphology of killer tornado and nontornadic wind events over the past 10-15 years.
• “Human Vulnerability to Lightning in Georgia” by Chris Gilson (NIU), Walker Ashley (NIU), Mace Bentley (NIU), and Tony Stallins (FSU); this poster highlighted Chris’ thesis work, which examined the enhancement of physical vulnerability to lightning due to population expansion in and around Atlanta, GA. The work further discusses how the urban heat island may be augmenting lightning around the city which, in turn, increases risk to the hazard.
• “The Response of University Students to Severe Weather Watches” by Becky Belobraydich (NIU and Univ. of Oklahoma/NWC-REU Program) and Matthew Biddle (OU); this work highlighted Becky’s research from summer 2008's National Weather Center Research Experiences for Undergraduates, where she had the distinct honor to collaborate with Dr. Biddle at OU.

Congratulations to Hiroyuki Ito!

Hiroyuki Ito, who received his B.S. in Meteorology and Certificate in GIS from NIU, was recently awarded a Graduate Research Assistantship at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. This highly competitive award will fund Hiro to work at the International Pacific Research Center whose focus is on climate variation and predictability in the Asia-Pacific region, including regional aspects of global climate change.

Hiro’s hard work in the classroom as well as his internship experience is what earned this graduate research assistantship. During Hiro’s Junior and Senior years, he volunteered to take daily 7am weather observations at the National Weather Service’s Cooperative Weather Station on the NIU campus. He also applied and obtained an internship position in aviation meteorology at ENSCO, Inc. who provides United Airline Operation and Weather Support. Hiro also applied and secured an internship in the GIS and Assessment Office of Whiteside County, Illinois. While a full-time student, each week Hiro would drive 80 miles roundtrip to work at ENSCO and 120 miles roundtrip to work at Whiteside County. These internships gave Hiro a competitive background that placed him above the many other applicants at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Hiro is one of many of our students who have applied for and received funding to complete degrees at the M.S. or Ph.D. levels this year. We've recently received news that some of our students will be attending graduate schools (with tuition waivers and graduate assistantships) at the University of Illinois, Mississippi State University, University of Oklahoma, and Kent State. Congrats and good luck in grad school!