The Unidata Program Center is pleased to welcome new members to the program's governing committees. Committee members normally serve three-year terms; terms are finishing up for two members of the Users committee and three members of the Policy committee. We'll also be welcoming a new Graduate Student representative and a new representative from NASA. New members and those finishing their terms will overlap for one meeting, which will take place in October 2013.
The UPC staff looks forward to working with our new committee members, and to having all the current members of both committees at the Program Center in Boulder, Colorado for the October meetings.
The following provides a brief introduction to the scientists joining Unidata's committees. You can additional information about the governing committees, including contact information for committee members, on the Governing Committees page.
Sen Chiao, Users Committee
Dr. Sen Chiao is an Assistant Professor in the Meteorology and Climate Science department at San Jose State University, where he is the faculty advisor for the mesoscale dynamics and modeling group. He has taught courses in Remote Sensing for Meteorology, Marine Meteorology, Numerical Weather Prediction, Mesoscale Meteorology, Planetary Boundary Layer Meteorology, as well as Dynamics and Synoptic Meteorology. His primary research interest is in numerical modeling with emphasis on tropical cyclone genesis.
Dr. Chiao received his PhD from North Carolina State University and joined the San Jose State University faculty in 2011. In 2012 he organized a successful Unidata regional workshop at San Jose State.
“I have been using data and software provided by Unidata for research and teaching for many years,” says Dr. Chiao. “I have the view that one day Unidata will be just like Google providing all different interesting services to atmospheric science community.”
Brian Mapes, Policy Committee
Dr. Brian Mapes is a Professor of Meteorology & Physical Oceanography at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami. He received his doctorate in Atmospheric Science from the the University of Washington, and spent time as a research scientist at NOAA's Climate Diagnostics Center before joining the University of Miami faculty in 2004. His work focuses on atmospheric convection, in the larger context of tropical weather and climate. His approach is to begin at a tangible local scale, building up to a global picture through quantitative analysis and abstraction. Dr. Mapes teaches courses on Weather and Climate, Atmospheric Dynamics, Convective and Mesoscale Meteorology, and Applied Data Analysis.
“After many years of personal, one-off scientific programming efforts, I am enthusiastically discovering the powers — and current limitations — of Unidata's community software for research,” says Dr. Mapes. “I've also recently begun teaching synoptic and mesoscale meteorology courses, and I'm finding Unidata software, and especially the IDV, to be excellent teaching tools.”
Sepideh Yalda, Policy Committee
Dr. Sepideh Yalda is a Professor of Meteorology at Millersville University. She received a doctorate in Meteorology from St. Louis University, and joined the Millersville faculty in 1997. Since 2009 she has also served as Director of the Center for Disaster Research and Education at Millersville. Dr. Yalda coordinates the Master of Science in Emergency Management program.
Dr. Yalda's research has focused on climate model statistics, information technology, and science education. She has also been involved in a number of community-based research projects with a focus on all-hazard approach to mitigation and planning. She is also a Co-PI on the National Science Foundation funded GEOScience Probe of Discovery (GEOPOD) project, which leverages Unidata's IDV to create an interactive learning environment utilizing real-time data that provides Meteorology instructors and students with an intuitive and graphical interface in a 3-D gaming environment.
“I am looking forward to serving on the Unidata Policy Committee, and to be able to contribute to this organization that is an invaluable community resource,” says Dr. Yalda.
George Young, Policy Committee
Dr. George Young is a Professor of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University. He received a doctorate in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University, and has put his research efforts into a wide variety of topics including atmospheric dynamics, boundary layer turbulence, mesoscale meteorology, remote sensing, statistical meteorology, and weather risk.
Since joining the Penn State faculty, Dr. Young has taught courses on Boundary Layer Meteorology and Turbulence; Synoptic, Mesoscale, and Dynamic Meteorology; Weather Forecasting; Atmospheric Observations; Physical Oceanography; Computer Applications; and Statistical Methods. He also supervises the Weather Risk option of Penn State's undergraduate degree in Meteorology.
“My reason for interest in Unidata policy is my long term involvement in statistical weather prediction and (more recently) it's application to decision support in weather sensitive activities,” says Dr. Young. “Ready access to long series of numerical model forecasts and observations are required for this type of work. Most archives, however, are either cover only the last few weeks or are grouped by day rather than by location, so they are of no use in the development of statistical forecast tools. I hope to be able to contribute to the design of extended archives to meet this growing need of the Weather Risk community.”
Users Committee Student Representative
Graduate student representatives bring a valuable student perspective to Unidata committee discussions, and help Unidata meet emerging challenges with an eye toward supporting young scientists entering the field.
Kimberly Hoogewind, Users Committee
Kimberly Hoogewind is beginning a two-year term as the Users Committee's Graduate Student Representative. She is pursuing a PhD in atmospheric science from Purdue University, studying with Dr. Mike Baldwin and Dr. Jeff Trapp. Her research interests include numerical weather prediction, data mining, and climate change and extreme weather, in particular the effects of anthropogenic climate change on future severe weather patterns.
Ms. Hoogewind has been active in serving the community of young scientists of many ages, from middle-school to her fellow graduate students, and she is a recipient of Purdue's Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award. “I enjoy teaching and strive to incorporate data analysis and visualization exercises into the classroom to facilitate learning and improve students' technical skills,” says Ms. Hoogewind.
Agency Representatives
In addition to committee members drawn from Unidata's academic community, the committies also include representatives from NASA, NOAA, NSF, UCAR, and NCAR. These agency representatives are important sources of information and advice about events and conditions that can profoundly affect the program.
Christopher Lynnes, Policy Committee NASA Representative
Dr. Christopher Lynnes will be NASA's new representative on the Unidata Policy Committee. Dr. Lynnes is Information Systems Architect for the Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. He is involved with a variety of applications and systems, including science data processing, data archiving, data search, and visualization systems.
Returning Committee Members
Two sitting committee members have agreed to extend their terms:
Bill Gallus, Policy Committee
Dr. Bill Gallus begins a three-year term as Chair of the
Unidata Policy Committee. Dr. Gallus
is a Professor of Synoptic and Mesocale
Meteorology, Numerical Weather Prediction in the Department
of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences at Iowa State
University. He served as a member of Unidata's Users
Committee from 2007-2010, and has been a member of the
Policy Committee since 2011.
Steven Lazarus, Users Committee
Dr. Steven Lazarus joined the Unidata Users Committee in 2009. After a one-year term extension in 2012, he has agreed to extend his time on the committee for an additional three-year term. Dr. Lazarus is a Professor at the Florida Institute of Technology's College of Engineering, Marine and Environmental Systems.
