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 three members of the Users committee and one member of the Strategic Advisory committee. New members and those finishing their terms will overlap for one meeting, which will take place in September (Users Committee) and October (Strategic Advisory Committee) of 2014.
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 this fall.
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.
Ibrahim Demir, Users Committee
Dr. Ibrahim Demir is an Assistant Research Professor at the IIHR — Hydroscience and Engineering (Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research), University of Iowa. He received his doctoral degree in Environmental Informatics at University of Georgia. His research focuses on environmental information systems, scientific visualization of geo-spatial data, user interface design, and information communication. His research efforts are aimed at developing novel information interfaces, using state-of-art visualization techniques, and providing support to researchers from various disciplines to help them visualize and understand environmental observations and simulation data.
Dr. Demir serves on the CUAHSI Informatics Committee and NSF EarthCube Workflow Steering Committee. At the University of Iowa, he has developed interactive visualizations of large, geospatial scientific data sets to improve communicating hydrological and atmospheric data and simulation results with public and decision makers. He worked on the design and development of the Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS), a one-stop web platform to access community-based flood conditions, forecasts, visualizations, inundation maps and flood-related data, information, and applications.
“My interest in the Unidata User Community is related to my experience and involvement in large-scale atmospheric data visualization and communication. I hope to be able to contribute to the atmospheric science community with my research in scientific visualization technologies, novel web-based applications, and interactive interfaces” says Dr. Demir.
Kevin Goebbert, Users Committee
Dr. Kevin Goebbert is an Assistant Professor of Meteorology at Valparaiso University. He received his doctoral degree in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. He has been an active participant in the Unidata community since his graduate school days, using GEMPAK extensively in the Oklahoma Weather Lab (OWL), where he was also involved in efforts to integrate Python tools for generating visualization products.
Dr. Goebbert currently teaches several undergraduate courses each semester at Valparaiso University, including “MET 290: Introduction to Weather Technology Lab.” He has also been instrumental in bringing AWIPS II technology to the University, spearheading the use of Unidata Community Equipment Award funds to set up an AWIPS II EDEX server.
“Unidata has provided a wonderful service to the geoscience community for many years,” says Dr. Goebbert. “I am a longtime user of many Unidata programs myself, as a result I look forward to working with Unidata and the community to continue this great endeavor.”
Gretchen Mullendore, Users Committee
Dr. Gretchen Mullendore is an Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of North Dakota. She received her doctoral degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 2003.
Dr. Mullendore's research focuses on using radar observations and mesoscale models to measure pollutants that are transported upward in severe storms, changing the chemical balance and heat absorption characteristics of the upper atmosphere. She also runs an operational WRF model focused on North Dakota. Dr. Mullendore currently teaches an introductory undergraduate course in programming and atmospheric data processing and NWP courses at both undergraduate and graduate level.
“Unidata continues to be a leader in helping both students and researchers access, use, and visualize atmospheric data” says Dr. Mullendore. “I'm looking forward to working with the Unidata team as they work on solutions to the growing challenges of Big Data in atmospheric sciences.”
David Santek, Strategic Advisory Committee
Dr. David Santek is an Assistant Scientist in the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has worked in the area of algorithm and software development for processing, analyzing, and visualizing data from geostationary and polar-orbiting weather satellites for more than 35 years.
One of Dr. Santek's primary roles at SSEC has been that of development manager for the Man computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS), where he has collaborated with many scientists and users on using McIDAS-X and McIDAS-V in research and operations. He is now the Principal Investigator (PI) for the McIDAS-V project. His main research interest is investigating the optimal use of satellite-derived winds in global numerical models to improve forecasts.
“Unidata and SSEC have a long history of working together, especially in regards to the satellite data distribution and the McIDAS software,” says Dr. Santek “More recently, I have collaborated on a couple of proposals with Unidata. I believe that serving on the Strategic Advisory Committee will provide me a better understanding of Unidata's mission to further strengthen our collaborations and a way to assist with policies that will better position Unidata in the ever-changing research funding landscape.”
