Summary: Hello everyone. I have a B.Sc. in Meteorology from King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. I am currently working on my M.S in Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. My research interests are about extreme precipitation and flash flooding, especially in arid lands. My current M.S project is to simulate and analyze two flash flood events occurred 2009 and 2011 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I believe this workshop would greatly benefit me to better understanding of many different aspects related to extreme precipitation and flooding. I look forward to meeting you all.

Summary: After earning my B.S. in meteorology from Valparaiso University in 2009, I entered graduate school at the University of Michigan to pursue research in modeling biosphere-atmosphere interactions. I study the feedback of land cover and land use change on future climate, in particular precipitation patterns, as part of my dissertation research and involvement on an multidisciplinary NSF project that examines the impacts of climate and land use change on water quality in the Great Lakes. Using a regional climate model coupled with a land surface model, I hope to provide spatial distributions of precipitation anomalies to help floodplain managers identify where the need for flood and erosion reduction measures is greatest. In addition, I can provide estimates of future precipitation intensity for engineers in floodplain management to develop adequate infrastructure for storm water diversion that can sufficiently withstand the magnitude of projected rainfall events.

Summary: Hi everyone! In 2010, I graduated with a B.S. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. I received my M.S. in Applied and Resource Economics from East Carolina University (ECU) in 2012. Currently, I am a PhD candidate in the Coastal Resources Management Program at ECU - an interdisciplinary course of study. My research focuses on the welfare of ecosystem services of coastal beach systems and the management of coastal shoreline erosion. North Carolina’s coastline is the primary locale examined due to its high vulnerability to hurricanes and their extreme precipitation and flooding consequences. I am looking forward to learning more about the natural components of extreme flooding and its application to shoreline management and erosional resiliency. I hope everyone is having a great summer so far, and I am very excited to meet you all soon!

Summary: I am a PhD candidate with the University of Georgia in Athens, GA and a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, TX. While at UGA, I have been studying urban meteorology/climatology under Dr. Marshall Shepherd. My dissertation looks into urban flooding in the southern Great Plains with a focus on the June 2010 Oklahoma City flood event. Prior to beginning my PhD studies, I earned a B.S. (2008) and a M.S. (2010) in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, and while there, I worked for the Oklahoma Climatological Survey.

Summary: I have a B.S in atmospheric science and geology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently working towards my M.S. in atmospheric science at CSU. I have not yet decided on my thesis research (we have lots of ideas), so I'm excited and hopeful that this workshop will help stir up the creative juices! I am interested in cloud microphysics, extreme precipitation and atmospheric chemistry. I'm currently finishing work I did at the National Center for Atmospheric Research through the SOARS program studying the sensitivity of a simulated deep convective storm to different microphysics schemes and horizontal resolutions. Can't wait to meet and learn from all the participants!

Summary: Hey all! I received a B.S. in Economics from Purdue University in 2010 with an honors thesis on natural disasters and GDP growth rates. I am working on a PhD in Economics at the University of California, San Diego. My research involves the formation of weather expectations. Accurate estimation of expected and unexpected weather events can provide researchers like us with a new and improved methodology for estimating adaptation to climate change and a wide variety of other issues. I'm looking forward to meeting you all soon!

Summary: I am a Ph.D. student in environmental history at the University of Kansas. I have an M.A. in history from Mississippi State, and dual B.S. degrees in history and journalism from Iowa State. I am embarking on a dissertation that will examine the development of probability as a means of understanding flood recurrence through three stages, including early applications of probability to flood recurrence, the development of mapping techniques for flood probability and their application via insurance, and the development of the idea that stationarity is dead in the context of hydrology, and specifically flooding. I am interested in the differences that have existed between expert and vernacular understandings of flood probability over time. My research is especially inspired by the floods that submerged my hometown of Iowa City, Iowa in 1993 and 2008. I look forward to discussing flooding with people who bring different academic backgrounds to a common area of interest!

Summary: I am a third year PhD student in the hydrometeorology research group. My research focuses on urban flooding - both the rainfall that causes it and the watershed's response to that rainfall. I am currently working on distributed hydrologic modeling for urban watersheds as well as storm tracking to examine the structure and evolution of warm season thunderstorms. Before graduate school, I worked as an environmental engineer for cities on the east coast, so I have some professional experience with stormwater management. I look forward to meeting you all and hearing about flooding outside of urban areas and extreme rainfall of other kinds!

Summary: I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Meteorology at Penn State University. My research involves the development of decision recommendation systems, particularly to optimize resource deployment under weather uncertainty in atmospheric field campaigns. In the course of this research, I have had some success using artificial intelligence tools to generate probabilistic forecasts of specific atmospheric phenomena of interest for field campaigns (e.g. isolated thunderstorms). I'm eager to see how the tools and methods I've used can be applied to other atmospheric phenomena, such as extreme precipitation events, and other decision problems, such as those associated with flooding. Excited to meet you all!

Summary: Hi all! I received a BS in Environmental Geoscience from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 2011. The last two summers before I graduated, I was involved in two REUs which interested me in paleoclimate reconstructions using calcite deposits in caves and annual sedimentation in Arctic lakes. Now, I'm trying to finish my MS in Hydrology at the University of Arizona to move on to the PhD in the spring. My project combines meteorology, hydrology, and probability statistics to provide better estimates of flood frequency magnitudes for a given recurrence probability in Arizona. I'm trying to explore the assumption in flood frequency analysis that all floods come from the same statistical population, which is extremely important in states that exhibit different flooding mechanisms, such as Arizona. In the future, I plan to incorporate climate change into the mix and find ways of implementing this approach into an adaptation strategy. I hope to learn more about flash flooding and large-scale atmospheric circulation drivers, but most importantly I want to get more exposure to real-world applications of research in risk assessment and floodplain management. I look forward to meeting you all!

Summary: Howdy! I received my B.S. in Meteorology from Texas A&M University this May and will be starting graduate school at Colorado State University in the fall. My undergraduate research focused on operational probabilistic storm surge forecasting, and the best ways to convey this threat to those in danger. I look forward to applying this knowledge to extreme rainfall situations and further exploring the communication of hazardous weather threats. I am excited to meet everyone!

Summary: Hello! I am a PhD candidate in cognitive psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle. I do experimental research that explores how well lay end-users understand probabilistic uncertainty information and how best to communicate forecast uncertainty given the realistic constraints of the cognitive processing of it. The research is rooted in cognitive psychology, building on what basic research in that area has revealed about, for example, loss aversion, non-linear probability weighting, the “description-experience gap” in people’s perception of the likelihood of rare events, and decision making under time pressure. I'm looking forward to meeting you all at the workshop!

Summary: I just finished my second year of Ph.D. coursework at Virginia Tech in the Science and Technology Studies program. My research is largely ethnographic and historical in nature, and it focuses on short fuse weather events as they unfold within a National Weather Service forecast office. I’m particularly interested in how experts convey confidence and uncertainty in their forecasts and products, as well as how they construct and disseminate weather warnings among multiple publics. This includes technical constraints, ethical considerations, and policy implications that come into play. I’ve been looking at winter weather and severe thunderstorm / tornado warnings over the past year and am now shifting my attention to floods. Before my Ph.D., I spent ten years teaching creative writing and journalism at the university level and hold an M.F.A. in nonfiction. I very much look forward to working with you all!

Summary: I graduated with a B.S. in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma in 2010 and a M.S. in environmental engineering from Duke University in 2012. I just completed my first year as a meteorology Ph.D. student at the University of Oklahoma. My research focuses using multiple data sources to asses the morphological, climatological, and event-based meteorological factors of flash flood scale basins in the United States. This work hopefully lead to the development of new operational tools for flash flood forecasting.

Summary: Hey Everyone! I graduated in 2011 from the University of Southern California (USC) with a B.S. in Geological Sciences. I am currently a second year M.S. student in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma (OU). My thesis topic includes using ensemble stormscale precipitation models for improved probabilistic flash flood forecasting. I'm excited to be a part of such an interdisciplinary group and will surely gain a lot (including new friends!) from this experience! Look forward to meeting you all soon!

Summary: I am a PHD student in Atmospheric Sciences under Russ Schumacher. My current research involves the use of both real-data driven and idealized model simulations to understand mechanisms for heavy rain production in elevated mesoscale convective systems. Other research interests include the regulation of convective scale processes by the downscale cascade of information from synoptic scales, the initial state dependence of atmospheric predictability, and the dynamics of supercells and tornadogenesis. Outside of work/research, I enjoy various outdoor activities including (but not limited to) skiing, biking, running, hiking, climbing, base jumping (ok, maybe not the last one ;-)).

Summary: Hi, I am a PhD candidate in Environmental and Conservation Sciences (Environmental Science track) at North Dakota State University in Fargo. I am also a Statistician with the U.S. Geological Survey North Dakota Water Science Center in Bismarck. My dissertation research is on the impact of climate variability and climate change on streamflow and stream water quality. I definitely want to learn more about extreme precipitation and incorporate that into my work. The path to a PhD has been rather convoluted for me. I got a BA in Mathematics from Luther College in Decorah, IA, a MS in Statistics from Colorado State University, and a graduate certificate in Data Mining and Applications from the Statistics Department of Standford University, with breaks between each program. I really like where I am now though and I'm excited for this workshop.

Summary: I have a B.S. in Meteorology/Climatology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an M.S. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois, and I am currently working on my Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois. My research focuses on satellite retrievals of precipitation in complex terrain. I am very interested in this area of research because a large amount of water resources fall as precipitation (rainfall or snowfall) in the mountains. Both of these can be precursors to catastrophic events ranging from land slides to flash flooding. Events such as these have major societal impacts, and I hope to be able to at least play a part in the mitigation of events such as these. I look forward to working with and learning from a variety of people from different disciplines to understand how we can work together, and pool our resources to help reduce the effects of extreme precipitation events. See you all soon!

Summary: Hello, everyone! I am a second year PhD candidate in Hydroclimate research group. My research focuses on analysis of non-stationary climate processes and extremes across scales. We work on developing regional models for analyzing and predicting extremes, as extreme temperature, precipitation and discharge etc. Current method for regional analysis is usually under stationary assumption. Ignoring time-variant (non-stationary) behavior of extremes could lead to failure of infrastructures and considerable damage to human life and society. And more challenges are to derive a meaningful climate response for the extreme analysis which is impeded by the choice of model skill, and strong dependencies and similarities of ensemble members. I am interested in working on these topics during my PhD study. I'm looking forward to meeting you all at the workshop!

Summary: I earned my BS in meteorology from Saint Cloud State University in 2010, and my Masters in Geographic Information Science from The University of Minnesota in May 2013. My research interests have been the societal impacts of weather, and the use of GIS in hydrometeorology.

Summary: Hi friends! I am finishing my PhD in Human and Environment Interactions (in the Graduate Degree Program of Ecology) at Colorado State University. My background is sociology, and I am currently in the field (Baja!!!) studying the opposite of precipitation - drought. Most of northern Mexico recently experienced the worst drought in 70 years, with Baja Sur getting the worst drop in precip. When it did rain, the land was so dry and eroded, most ran off and flooded the coastal cities. I'm specifically looking at how changing weather patterns affect human migration in the state. And I worked at NCAR too, so glad to see so many alumni will be at the workshop!

Summary: I am a PhD candidate at the Center for Hydrometeorology & Remote Sensing at UC Irvine. About my background, I did my bachelor degree in civil engineering at Bachkhoa University HCM City, Vietnam in 2003. I completed my master degree in water resources management at University of Melbourne, Australia in 2008. My current research focuses on coupling a hydrologic model (HL-RDHM) with a hydraulic model (BreZo) for flash flood modeling at high resolution. My research interests are flash flood warnings, satellite precipitation estimation and object-based algorithms for extreme events. I look forward to meeting you all in Fort Collins.

Summary: My background is in engineering, finance and climate science. I am working towards achieving mainly two broad research goals during my PhD, firstly, to understand better the statistics and dynamics of extreme precipitation events and be able to quantify the changes. Secondly, to formulate adaptation strategies to better manage the risk mainly through financial risk management tools. Looking forward to meeting you all soon. Cheers, Prad

Summary: Russ joined the faculty at Colorado State in the fall of 2011. He received his B.S. with majors in meteorology and humanities from Valparaiso University in Indiana in 2001, and earned his M.S. in 2003 and Ph.D. in 2008 from the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Russ received an Advanced Study Program Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and spent 2008-2009 at NCAR in Boulder. From 2009-2011, Russ was assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University.

Summary: I received a BS in Environmental, Atmospheric, and Oceanic Sciences from UCLA (and a minor in French!) and a MA in Geography from the University of Oklahoma. My interests during my BS and MA were in severe weather and understanding how the public's and stakeholders respond to and make decisions during tornado warnings. My studies shifted during my PhD (at East Carolina University) to studying hurricanes and nor'easters with a focus on storm surge and flooding. My research assistantship involves learning about how communities prone to floods understand current NWS products and how these products can be modified to better serve their needs. My dissertation topic is on politician and emergency manager decision making regarding evacuations during Superstorm Sandy. I'm hoping to learn more about the physical components of precipitation and flooding, since my focus is on the social aspect of coastal storms. I look forward to meeting you all!

Summary: I am a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Engineering at Kansas State University. I received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Amir-Kabir Univetrsity (Iran) and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Shiraz University (Iran) with focus on Water quality Modeling. Currently I am working on a NSF funded project as part of my dissertation on Climate Change variability in Kansas. In order to develop a better understanding of rainfall distributions across Kansas, and how shifts in these distributions might affect water infrastructure design, I have analyzed the extreme rainfall frequency using daily precipitation data. I really like our group with people looking at flooding issues from different perspectives. See you all soon!

Summary: Hello everyone! I am originally from Chicago, IL and did my undergraduate studies at Valparaiso University, where I received my B.S. in Meteorology in 2011. Currently, I am working on my M.S. in Atmospheric Science at CSU with Dr. Russ Schumacher. I am supported by the CSU I-WATER program, which is an interdisciplinary program training graduate students in hydrology, atmospheric science, and ecology. My research focuses on modeling warm-season precipitation along the Front Range of Colorado, as well as talking with emergency managers on they access and use hazardous weather information. My career interests include improving weather communication and understanding, developing educational materials, and engaging in various community outreach activities. I'm looking forward to meeting you all soon!

Summary: I am currently in a Disaster and Emergency Management graduate program, and I have an undergraduate degree in International Development. Throughout these studies, I have been interested in the relationship between hazards and vulnerable populations. More specifically, the conditions required for hazards to become disasters. I've been focussing on floodplain management recently, with an emphasis on (but not limited to!) First Nations land in Canada. I'm really looking forward to encountering so many diverse perspectives!