Spring 2009 Kudos!

Another academic year comes to a close, bringing a long, long list of kudos for NIU Meteorology Program students and faculty.

First, congratulations to our student award winners, which were featured in our “2009 Cookout” blog post. Those honored were Becky Belobraydich for the Liberals Arts and Sciences Dean’s Award in Meteorology; Rachel Dearing and Bethany Norris for the Nancy Wick Award for Outstanding Achievement as Seniors in Meteorology; and Kristina Rohrbach for the Jack Villmow Award for Outstanding Achievement as a Junior in Meteorology. Congratulations Becky, Rachel, Bethany, and Kristina!

At the 62nd Annual Journalism Banquet, Carie Cunningham was awarded the Northern Television Center Weather Reporter of the Year Award. Congrats Carie!

Bethany Norris will pursue a master’s degree in Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on a highly competitive teaching assistantship. She will be working under Dr. Larry Di Girolamo quantifying trade-wind cumulus clouds as well as developing climatologies of these clouds for incorporation into global climate models. Bethany also recently completed her honors capstone paper, entitled “Illinois Precipitation Anomalies in 2008,” which examined the unusually high precipitation Illinois received that year at several temporal and spatial scales to determine the frequency and spatial distribution of the precipitation. Congratulations on graduating with University Honors and best of luck at University of Illinois!

During the 2009 spring semester, Erik Janzon wrote an honors capstone paper entitled, "A Case Study of a Wake Low in Northern Illinois and its Numerical Model Prediction." The paper analyzed a wake low-induced severe wind event that occurred last May and the performance of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in the prediction of the low three hours in advance. This summer, Erik will be an intern meteorologist for the North Dakota Water Commission, where he will assist with the ongoing cloud modification experiment there. The goal of the experiment is to mitigate hail production and increase rainfall. Congratulations on graduating with University Honors and good luck this summer in North Dakota!

This past semester, Becky Belobraydich had the honor of being chosen to receive the University Women's Club Scholarship, which is based upon academic merit and personal achievement. She will be spending the upcoming summer at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma as the assistant for the National Weather Center Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. Congratulations and good luck, Becky!

Graduate students Tom Walsh and Victor Gensini secured summer internships with Chesapeake Energy. Chesapeake Energy Corporation is the number one independent producer of natural gas in the nation and the most active driller of new wells. Their meteorology division, located in the West Loop of Chicago, monitors weather patterns and climate anomalies to inform their agricultural and energy clients about weather patterns that may affect those respective markets. This summer, Tom and Victor will be assisting Chesapeake with climate research and severe weather forecasting. Congratulations to Tom and Victor! Better dig out those business suits!

Graduate student Jenni Prell will continue a Co-Op placement this summer at Argonne National Laboratory. She will be continuing work assisting with climate model adjustments for modeling increased biofuel production, as well as assisting with routine field measurements made at Fermilab. Jenni will also be assisting researchers working on the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program's newest mobile facility, the AMF2. A recent contract awarded to Argonne by the Department of Energy (DOE) has allowed the laboratory to begin development of this climate research platform that will be able to make observations on both land and ocean, allowing for atmospheric measurements to be made in remote regions. The current AMF is only land-based. Read about the AMF2 here. Good luck Jenni!

NIU graduate Monica Zappa will be leaving NIU to attend the University of Oklahoma in the Fall 2009 where she will work as a research assistant for the new Social Science Woven into Meteorology (SSWIM) program at the National Weather Center. She will also be working on her Ph.D. in the Geography Department and is planning to continue her study into societal impacts from weather disasters. Monica was also the recipient of an Outstanding Women Student Award this spring. The award recognizes the achievements of graduating outstanding women students. Congratulations, Monica! Good luck in Oklahoma!

NIU graduate student Chris Gilson will be attending Mississippi State University this coming fall to pursue a Doctorate Degree in Earth and Atmospheric Science. Chris has obtained a research assistantship and will be working under the direction of Dr. Mike Brown on a hazard mitigation project for Mississippi State University. Good luck Chris!

NIU graduate student Jeremy Spencer has secured an extremely competitive teaching assistantship at Kent State University. Jeremy plans to pursue a Ph.D. at Kent State, researching human vulnerability to weather hazards. Best of luck in Ohio, Jeremy!

2008 NIU MET grad, Hiroyuki Ito, 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. Please see this blog entry for Hiro’s amazing journey.

Dr. Walker Ashley was featured as a guest speaker at Tom Silling’s enormously popular Fermi Lab Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar. Dr. Ashley’s spoke on his recent research on tornado vulnerability. You can watch the entire seminar, including Dr. Ashley’s talk, at WGN’s website.

Backstage at the 2009 Seminar: (from l-to-r) Erik Janzon, Tom Skilling, Becky Belobraydich, and Walker Ashley.

Additionally, the NIU Meteorology faculty would like to thank the NIU-NWS Cooperative Observers who diligently took weather observations every morning at 7 am for the past 365 days. Their efforts are not only appreciated by the faculty, but by all of those who utilize these important records in their climate analyses -- from Gilbert Sebenste at NIU to the climate modelers examining global warming at NCAR. First, and foremost, we thank Kevin Nasiatka who performed admirably as the Coop's Weather Director this year. He was assisted by the following students: Trevor Edmonson, Erik Janzon, Kyle McAdams, Ryan Oates, Matias Sich, Rose Sengenberger, Carie Cunningham, Marius Paulikas, Alecia Osborne, and Ian Chang. Again, thank you.

Finally, good luck to our entire graduating senior class! Make sure you stop back by for Career Day ... or any day! Keep your eyes to the sky.