Secure LoginAOSS Spotlight
- Joyce Penner
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Go with your heart. I think you've got to do the stuff you find interesting.
Dr. Joyce Penner is a professor and associate chair at AOSS, and a review editor for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) upcoming report. For the IPCC, she read over a thousand reader comments and used them to provide authors with helpful feedback.
She says her role is to make sure the document maintains a good outside view.” As a professor, Penner specializes in climate change, studying factors such as gas and aerosol interactions in the atmosphere, and the effects of pollutants from fossil fuel burning on aerosols and clouds. Penner says she is drawn to study climate because it is “important socially”.
As associate chair, she aims to recruit more undergraduate students. She says the AOSS undergraduate program is great for preparing for graduate school, and it can also prepare students for careers. One of her goals is to “identify the jobs available for people trained in environmental work."One resource is the Earth Science Women's Network, started by AOSS associate professor Allison Steiner. It has a number of career opportunities for undergraduate and master's level students.
- Kevin Reed
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AOSS Alumnus Kevin Reed is the first University of Michigan student to be selected for the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Congressional Science Fellowship.
Reed says his year-long fellowship, located in Washington, D.C., is “completely open ended. There, I won't be doing research at all. I'll be a typical staffer with science as my specialty.Although there are no guarantees, Reed says he hopes to get into an office that’s interested in climate change.
Reed received his B.S. in physics from the Univeristy of Michigan. He says he was attracted to AOSS for graduate school because of his “interest in studying atmospheric science. I wanted something policy relevant.”He says one of the benefits of being an AOSS student was the ability to travel often. “It broadened my view of the field,” Reed says.
During his travels, Reed was happy to come from a school everyone knew.“It’s huge, it’s well-known around the world. Even in Peru – when I traveled there – people knew about the University of Michigan.”When he’s not studying, Reed follows University of Michigan sports.“I like football. I'm an avid Michigan sports fanatic. I host a tailgate before every football game in the fall.When he completes his fellowship, Reed says he plans to return to research. To learn more about American Geophysical Union Congressional Science Fellowship, please visit http://www.agu.org/sci_pol/cong_fellowship/
- Jessica Parker
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“The programs in the department were well rounded and allowed students to study both the science and engineering sides of Earth Sciences with world renowned faculty,” she says. “The program also offered just enough flexibility and hands-on experience to really make studies unique to each student. “I love U-M because it’s a diverse school with amazing students, faculty, and research opportunities.”
When Jessica Parker, a meteorologist with the Weather Underground in San Francisco, set her sights on attending the University of Michigan, it was the AOSS department that attracted her to the maize and blue. “The programs in the department were well rounded and allowed students to study both the science and engineering sides of Earth Sciences with world renowned faculty,” she says. “The program also offered just enough flexibility and hands-on experience to really make studies unique to each student. “I love U-M because it’s a diverse school with amazing students, faculty, and research opportunities.” Parker completed her Earth Systems Science and Engineering studies at U-M, concentrating on Meteorology/Atmospheric Science, and “dabbling” in Climate Change Studies.
Some of her favorite adventures as a Wolverine included learning about instrumentation and data sampling in Greenland with Professor Perry Samson, and learning about smokestack sampling in Pensacola, Florida, with the late Professor Gerald Keeler.
After U-M, Parker turned down an opportunity to be a tornado chaser on reality TV, and headed to California where she joined the Weather Underground in San Francisco. “I wanted to join the Weather Underground team of meteorologists because the company allows ‘mets’ to indulge in the many facets of meteorology, similar to the AOSS dept. – programming, research, outreach, broadcast, and more – and encourages continued education conferences and workshops,” she says. “While I enjoy working with new data sets and programming, forecasting storms, and making recent storm assessments, I have the most fun participating in various outreach projects, including weather talks with students, radio and broadcast about weather and travel, and national and international conferences and events.”
In her leisure time, Parker enjoys exploring the many districts of San Francisco and the cities of the Bay Area. “There’s always some new and exciting restaurant, shop, or event.” For a quick escape from the city, she hikes in the Marin Headlands or the nearby National Parks. Her newest hobby is learning how to snowboard and she is looking forward to visiting Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada this winter. She also enjoys kickboxing and traveling. “My favorite places to visit in the states include New York, Miami, and back home to Chicago to visit family – and my favorite international city is London.”
- Zahid Hasan
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I have an enormous respect for the intelligence and dedication from everyone at the University of Michigan. I don’t think people realize how much I value what I learn and absorb from my daily interactions with them.
Zahid Hasan's passion and zeal for robotics and technology, along with his entrepreneurial spirit, have served him well over the years, from earning him the distinction of being the first university student to be published in Aviation Week magazine’s editorial page, to being named having the Most Social Impact Award - Student Showcase 2011. Other honors and awards include the Dare to Dream grant 2010, Startup-onomics Summit 2011, and the TechArb Tenancy 2010.
Zahid credits inspiring and amazing mentors for helping him parlay his passions and focus his research interests in the area of Cooperative Unmanned Systems. Zahid chose to pursue a MEng in Space System Engineering because of the practical focus on teamwork and solving impact-driven problems through technical excellence. In addition, Zahid's interest in figuring out how to harness technical ability into reality to positively affect lives has led to the creation of his own company.
After graduation, Zahid's concentration will be on his company Medicron, whose mission is enabling developing nations to track and manage real-time health information for improved health of its citizens. During his "down-time," Zahid enjoys martial arts, hacking, programming, and cooking.
- Robert Alexander
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I'm always on the lookout for new data sets to audify! I think we can learn a lot if we open our ears to the sounds of science. Also, people should know that the Design Science PhD program at the University of Michigan is one of the few programs in the world through which this research would be possible.
Robert Alexander's research lies at the intersection of technology and creativity. As a Design Science Ph.D pre-candidate, he's working to construct software interfaces for exploring scientific data in new ways. The core of his research lies in data sonfication with the Solar Heliospheric Research Group. Sonification is a process through which any kind of non-auditory data is translated as sound. They're transforming space data into the sonic realm such that they can gain a new perspective, and begin to ask new questions. Robert related that “as a media artist and electroacoustic composer, I've pushed for over a decade to create new tools for self expression. This has generated a keen awareness of the extent to which the creative process can be colored by technological tools. I was contacted by the Solar Heliospheric Research group (SHRG) due to my expertise in interface design and knowledge of algorithmic music composition methods. The SHRG is very innovative and forward thinking. This group is extremely inspiring to work with.”
Robert's advisors include Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen (Professor, Space Science, Associate Dean for Entrepreneurship); Dr. Jason Gilbert (Assistant Research Scientist); and Dr. Mary Simoni (Associate Dean for Research and Community Engagement, Professor of Performing Arts Technology, School of Music Theatre and Dance).
Honors and achievement awards include the 2011 NASA-Harriett G. Jenkins Pre-doctoral Fellowship Project (JPFP) Award; International Community for Auditory Display: Outstanding Achievement Award; Yahoo! Boost Award; University of Michigan Dean's Named Fellowship 2010-2011; and securing a Rackham Summer Research Grant.
In his “spare” time, Robert enjoys writing music, playing chess, and reading. He also plays piano, guitar, cello, and drums, and even sings. He's even found time to teach computer music at the Interlochen Center for the Arts for the past two summers! Visit Robert's website at www.robertalexandermusic.com to learn more.
After graduation, Robert is interested in advancing the field of auditory data analysis, and envisions this work will ultimately lead to a full-time position with NASA. He also hopes to build a larger bridge between the arts and sciences, and to continue rigorously exploring his own creative capabilities.
- Dara Fisher
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Now in her senior year, Dara was selected as one of only six U-M students nominated for the prestigious Marshall Scholarship. To be eligible, Dara had to have a high GPA, at least 3.8, and have shown leadership and commitment through her other activities. Not difficult for Dara by most standards as she has been president of the Shipman Society and the U-M Engineering Council as well as editor-in-chief of “the all-nighter," the CoE student newspaper. During her sophomore year, Dara received a UROP first prize for her research poster, “Improving X-Ray Radiography for Astrophysics Experiments,” and junior year she received the College of Engineering Distinguished Leadership Award. Just for good measure, Dara is a member of Tau Beta Pi and the Epeians, the engineering leadership honor society.In her “spare” time, Dara has managed to fit in being the props director for MUSKET, the University’s largest student-run musical theater group during her sophomore year. And, like most U-M students and alumni, she is a “die-hard Michigan football fan.” “I’ve only missed one quarter of one home game since arriving in Ann Arbor in 2007.”Let’s hope she’ll be yelling “Go Blue” from London next year!
As the daughter of a Michigan alumnus (class of ’73), Dara knew about Michigan, but it was the three days spent on campus as a part of the Shipman Scholar recruitment program that sold Dara on attending U-M. “I knew Michigan was the place for me.”
- Julie Feldt
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“Being a part of the REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics made me completely change my graduate school plans.”
After her 2008 REU experience, Julie applied to and was accepted into the AOSS PhD program in the Fall of 2009. She is a graduate student working with Professor Mark Moldwin, studying the ionosphere, plasmasphere and magnetosphere. Julie received a BS in astronomy and one in physics from the University of Kansas, where, interestingly, she worked for Professor Thomas Cravens, who was formerly at U-M and has been a longtime friend of AOSS and SPRL.
Asked what people would least suspect of her, she said, “Most people are pretty shocked that I have a tattoo, it’s the symbol for Pluto. In the third grade I wrote a report on Pluto, and I've hooked ever since!”
- Mark Flanner
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“As seasonal snow and sea-ice evolve in response to climate change, they drive amplifying feedbacks, illuminating the importance of understanding the physics of cryosphere-climate interactions. U-M is an ideal place to pursue this research because of its breadth of academic expertise and recent establishment of the AOSS/GS Cryospheric Science Cluster. ”
Professor Flanner came to AOSS from Boulder where he had been a postdoctoral fellow in the Advanced Study Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). He received his PhD in Earth System Science from UC-Irvine and brings an interdisciplinary approach to researching climate processes. He is the author and maintainer of the Snow, Ice, and Aerosol Radiative (SNICAR) model (http://snow.engin.umich.edu/), a tool used to study the influence of aerosols on cryospheric processes.
- Xianglei Huang
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Professor Huang is mainly interested in understanding the entangled interactions between the atmospheric radiation, water vapor and clouds, and the atmospheric dynamics by diagnosis analysis of satellite observations and climate model simulations. Closely related to the main focus, he is interested and actively involved in the research of infrared radiative transfer and remote sensing as well as climate diagnostics. He also has published articles about planetary atmospheres, in which he still keeps tangential interest. In 2008, Geophysical Research Letter, the premium letter journal of the American Geophysical Union, highlighted one of his studies on the radiative impact of cirrus on the troposphere-to-stratosphere transport. Professor Huang currently serves as associate editor of the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology.
- Michael Liemohn
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Professor Liemohn has been a researcher in AOSS since 1998. Prior to that he was a National Research Council Resident Research Associate at Marshall Space Flight Center. His research interests include physics of geomagnetic storms, storm-time inner magnetospheric plasma dynamics and evolution, planetary plasma environments, energetic-thermal particle interactions, mid- and high-latitude ionospheric precipitation and outflow, and wave-particle interaction theory and plasma instabilities. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union. In 2002 he received the U-M Research Scientist Recognition Award.
- Martin G. Mlynczak
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“We need to get measurements of energy as a function of wavelength -- to look at the entire amount of infrared and solar radiation -- to get into measuring spectra radiation very accurately in order to study climate and climate change in the long range.”
In 2004 AOSS honored alumni Martin G. Mlynszak with the College of Engineering Alumni Society Merit Award for his many contributions to the field of atmospheric science. Dr. Mlynczak’s research interests include calculation, modeling and observation of atmospheric thermodynamics, energy budgets and structure from satellite, aircraft, balloon and ground-based instruments. Much of his research to develop and mature instruments used to measure infrared and solar radiation in the atmosphere has put him in the debate over climate warming.
Dr. Mlynczak is an Affiliate Scientist at the High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, and a member of the Observatory's Scientific Advisory Committee.
- Mark Moldwin
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“ My goal as a professor is to successfully integrate my research and teaching so that undergraduates get a sense of what space scientists do, and graduate students and post-docs get a sense of how they most effectively think, learn and communicate their science. ”
Professor Moldwin is an active and highly recognized member of the space science community and one of the best educators in space science. His recent textbook, Introduction to Space Weather, is the first textbook for space science non-major service courses. He was among the “ten top Professors at UCLA” (as rated by the UCLA Student Association) and has developed a number of successful local, national and international K-12 outreach programs. Professor Moldwin was the Research Corporation Cotrell Scholar in 1996 and received the NSF CAREER Award in 1997. His research spans heliophysics from studying the magnetic structure of the Sun to energy coupling between the magnetosphere and ionosphere. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union and is the Editor-in-Chief of Reviews of Geophysics.
- Catherine Walker
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“The main thing that drew me here was the sheer amount of research that comes out of Michigan, and the opportunity to do such neat inter-disciplinary projects was a big deal ”
Catherine joined AOSS in the Fall ’08 after double-majoring in astrophysics and geological sciences at Mount Holyoke College (one of the Seven Sisters). This past summer, Catherine was selected as a NASA Student Ambassador — this follows six other stints at NASA either as an intern or a student in “NASA Boot Camp”. How did she do it? “I just kept applying and making contacts.” The perseverance expected of someone whose goal is to be an astronaut, is a certified diamond buyer by the Gemological Institute of America and watches NASCAR every Sunday.
Now that Catherine is in her second year, she says that AOSS, with its “diversity of interests and inherent possibilities for research experiences,” gives her the freedom to try new things. “AOSS is definitely one of the more diverse groups of ‘space’ science departments that I found — in one hallway, you can talk to an atmospheric chemist, the next, a physicist, and in the next, hear all about the Sun or one of the planets.
Catherine has recently taken up baking and decorating cakes and she has a twin who is pursuing an MA at the Cooperstown Graduate Program in New York (a premier program for History/Museum Studies).
- Jordan Feight
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“Weather has always peaked my interest, and being part of the engineering school at U‑M has opened many doors for me. The opportunities that I have here is astounding”
AOSS sophomore Jordan Feight had no idea what to expect when he came to U-M in the fall of 2009. He just knew that meteorology was what he wanted to study. That decision led him to connecting with the Solar Car Team and to spending a week on the road from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to Naperville, Illinois, doing daily forecasts and having critical input into the team’s winning strategy.
“The coolest thing of being on the team was to watch the team evolve. Business students became mechanical engineers, industrial operation majors learned the electrical systems, and math majors broadened their knowledge of weather.”
Jordan who used “fantastic equipment such as a WeatherHawk weather station, weather balloons, and pyranometers” says plans are underway for new weather tools, models and equipment for the next World Solar Challenge in 2011.
Jordan will be following AOSS alumni Matt Trantham who was the meteorologist on the 2005 U-M Solar Car Team and Brad Charboneau who was meteorologist on the 2007 U‑M team. All three teams won the American Solar Challenge — a great AOSS tradition has begun!
- Jeffrey Thayer
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Since receiving the 2005 College of Engineering AOSS Alumni Society Merit Award, Jeffrey Thayer has continued his extensive research in remote sensing of the atmosphere and ionosphere using lidar and radar techniques; optical systems and design; atmospheric and space physics; geophysical fluid dynamics, electrodynamics, and plasma physics. He was the Chair of the NSF Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Program Science Steering Committee, 2007-2009 and co-chair of the Greenland Space Science Symposium, which resulted in a web site comprised of science resources for teachers K-12. (http://www.nortellearnit.org/nia_nasa/greenland_symposium)
View interview with Professor Thayer:
“How do changes in Earth's lower atmosphere affect us?”
http://nortellearnit.org/nia_nasa/greenland_symposium/media/space_weather#jthayer