A&GS Spotlights

December 14, 2020

Sophie Plassin was ecstatic to read the job offer to work on a research project in Oklahoma. Originally from France, she had always dreamed of traveling to the United States to grow academically, while immersing herself in an English-speaking language. When research exploring the effects of climate change in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin presented itself, she knew it was a perfect fit. The project is funded by the USGS South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center.

Plassin received her MSc from Purpan Engineering School in Toulouse, France in 2009, and her PhD from AgroParisTech, a graduate school of the Paris-Saclay University in 2018 prior to coming to Oklahoma. Plassin has been a post-doc interdisciplinary researcher on the basin project at the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences since 2017.

Plassin has a wealth of related experience that helped fuel her passion for her research at OU. Before beginning her PhD, she worked as a coordinator in the Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development in Southwestern France. This region has been suffering from recurrent and severe drought, causing them to adjust their cropping practices. “I was in charge of supporting farmers to find alternatives, and during that time, I realized how important it was to find sustainable agricultural strategies for water use.” She says she saw the importance of this issue as it relates to her research at OU, as agriculture represents more than 80% of the water withdrawals in the Rio Bravo Basin – which is already experiencing water-scarcity.

Another reason she was drawn to this challenging project was its involvement with building a socio-economic model for a large, binational river basin with a complex network of dams and diversions. Plassin not only mentions the project’s relativity to her field of study, but also its profound impact on her perspective. “The project opened my mind and now I have a bigger picture when thinking about agricultural and environmental challenges.”

Plassin says there are three main takeaways from her time at A&GS. The first is her expanded knowledge in her field, “My CV has improved a lot during my time in the United States - I had the chance to attend many international, national, and regional conferences and workshops, and I have developed a lot of my geospatial and programming skills.” The second takeaway is the project itself, with its challenging, yet rewarding work, “I saw this kind of research as a key frontier in socio-environmental modeling, and I am now well positioned in this topic.” The third aspect that stuck out to Plassin was her wide network of colleagues and support system, “Being in the U.S. has been a wonderful opportunity to develop my network on the other side of the Atlantic. I know I have developed trustful and long-term relationships that I could rely on for my future scientific collaborations.”

Plassin says there are three faculty members from the Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences that played a critical role in her growth. She says Dr. Jennifer Koch is her role model – it meant a lot to Plassin that Dr. Koch invested in her professional and personal development by sending her to conferences, involving her in cutting-edge research, and letting her co-instruct courses. Dr. Randy Peppler also had a profound impact on Plassin, as he invited her to guest lecture in several of his courses and encouraged her to submit an internal proposal to NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) that was successfully funded. Dr. Renee McPherson similarly played a key role in her support system at OU and invested in Plassin’s academic development.

What’s next for Plassin? She’s recently accepted a position as a research scientist for the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment – which is the French equivalent of the USDA. She will continue research in her field of expertise with emphasis on climate change resilience in sustainable agriculture. 

When asked for advice for new or current students in the College of Atmospheric Sciences, Plassin had some words of wisdom to pass along: “Follow and listen to the people who trust in you! I have been lucky to have always worked with supervisors and mentors who have trusted in me and pushed me to give the best of myself and not be afraid to take on any challenges. If I had listened to the negative people around me, I would have never come to the United States or even followed a path in academia.”

Academic and research facilities are an important factor in making the decision on what university to attend.  Just ask Taylor Stephenson who fell in love with OU’s meteorology program after her visit to the National Weather Center (NWC).

Now a senior in the University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology, Stephenson says strong connections with classmates were crucial to her success.  “Studying with friends makes learning the material much easier…I’ve done much better on tests after a group study session, than when I studied alone.”  She strongly advises incoming students to take hold of group connections and use them to their advantage.  “Metsgiving”, an annual student gathering in the School, is one event Stephenson remembers fondly as providing a place to see classmates outside of the classroom while sharing amazing food!

Stephenson also credits her success to professional networking opportunities found in the College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences.  Stephenson landed a prestigious internship with The Weather Channel in the summer of 2019.  She was hired as a Weather Producer after meeting the Vice President of On-Air Talent when he spoke to her meteorology class.  Stephenson remarks that her internship provided a fun and amazing way to see her work being broadcast to the nation.

Academic struggles can happen to anyone and Stephenson was no different.  She credits Shelby Hill, the School’s Coordinator of Undergraduate Programs, with helping her through all of the “ups and downs” noting Hill was always open to help in any way she could.  Scheduling classes can always be a mammoth to tackle but Stephenson said she was never worried when she had Hill’s help, “Without her, I really would have struggled…She also reassured me when I doubted my academic abilities.”

Stephenson’s experience is proof that the right connections can lead to success.  Stephenson urges students to network and take advantage of the support offered by faculty and staff who are there to help students navigate the academic experience and find career building opportunities outside the classroom.

A love for research brought Jorge A. Celis Rodriguez to the University of Oklahoma. Celis is currently a graduate student pursuing his PhD in geography after recently completing his Master of Science in geography with a concentration in geospatial technologies from OU in December 2019.  Celis received his Bachelor of Science in environmental engineering from El Bosque University in Bogota, Columbia in 2017.  Celis wanted to continue his education at OU after being engaged in a meaningful undergraduate capstone project with the OU Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing Laboratory (HyDROS) group.  Celis's capstone project was focused on drought detection using multiple eco-hydrological indices based on remote sensing data.

Celis credits Dr. Hernan Moreno, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability (DGES), as being the mentor that made a difference in his education at OU.  Dr. Moreno serves as Celis’s PhD advisor.  The research conducted in the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences has given Celis an appreciation of the many fields where research can be applied and how research can produce societal benefits to many sectors.  Celis said, “The geospatial technologies emphasis has helped to take advantage of new platforms and technologies to enhance engineering techniques that were limited by the amount of data and the area of the study region.”  Celis has compared current algorithms with NASA missions and the physical foundations to understand their limitations.  “It has opened a research field where we can replicate some of the coarse satellite estimations with higher resolution.”

During the summer of 2019, Celis was awarded a $500 scholarship from the NSF sponsored Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) that allowed him to travel to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Foothills Lab in Boulder, Colorado.  While at NCAR, he participated in a June 2019 training workshop focused on the use and applications of the Community WRF-Hydro Modeling System.

Celis's favorite memory at OU thus far has been hearing from his committee “You are approved!”  after successfully defending his MS thesis.  When asked by his committee about the future of the environmental sustainability, geography, geographic information science, and meteorology professions, he replied with saying that “technologies are advancing at a high pace”, and that “analytical parts of the problem” should remain a strong focus.  He believes this will foster a deeper understanding of problems and lead to models being developed to process and manage data.  Celis encourages students and graduates to be organized, confident, not afraid to ask questions and to think about where they want to be in 20 years thus allowing a clearer picture of the path to success.

As a recent Spring 2020 graduate from the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, Elizabeth Leslie has had quite the senior experience. Earning her Bachelor’s of Science in Meteorology, with a minor in Communication, Leslie is ready to take on the world amidst a global pandemic. Leslie began her interest in OU within her junior year of high school, her family was worried that the distance between Virginia and Oklahoma was too great. Leslie remarks, “…my mom wanted me to really understand how far Oklahoma was from my home state…That plan kind of backfired because I absolutely fell in love with OU (and so did my mom).” A tour of the National Weather Center is what hooked Leslie into overcoming the distance between states, and sealed her college commitment to OU.

While volunteering at many events such as the National Weather Festival, Leslie looks back on her times as a meteorology student with great fondness. Leslie has been part of a student group known as the “Weather Friends”, which have meteorology students dress up as different weather-themed superheroes. “Children who I interacted with knew quite a bit about the weather and also were interested in learning more. Watching the smile appear on their face when they answer a question correctly was extremely rewarding, and they really did think we were all superheroes!”

Leslie reflects on the impacts of receiving her degree from A&GS, “Pursuing a degree through the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences exposed me to many possible career paths that alumni have taken…Student organizations such as SCAN and OWL have helped by inviting speakers from various backgrounds to speak with current students. In addition, professors are accessible to talk to about research opportunities and career paths.” Along her journey at OU, she received many interactions with different mentors. Mentors such as James Hocker and Andrea Melvin from the Oklahoma Mesonet, and Dr. Daphne LaDue with the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms. She mentions that these mentors helped to “strengthen her communication skills” and guide her through her own senior research projects.

In her opinion, the future of meteorology professions will be heavily weighted towards communicating weather information effectively. “I may be slightly biased… I have already seen this with various research projects coming out of the NWC and beyond, and I really believe that these skills in the social sciences will become more and more important.” Leslie’s advice to all incoming A&GS students mentions, “…take advantage of all the opportunities provided through the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences! There are so many amazing people and events that you can attend to learn something new!”

Proving that distance learning can really work, Lené Le Roux is pursuing her PhD in Geography while living in Johannesburg, South Africa.  She began her academic journey at the University of Pretoria in South Africa where she received her undergraduate degree for Town and Regional Planning in 2009.  The journey to OU was inspired by Le Roux’s advisor, Dr. Mary Lawhon, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability.  Le Roux says that the impact of pursuing a degree through the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences has been nothing but positive.  “Studying through the Geography discipline…has given me a much wider and more critical lens – something I was craving after qualifying and working as a professional urban planner for 12 years.” She credits Dr. Lawhon, Dr. Joseph Pierce, Dr. Laurel Smith, Dr. Darren Purcell, and Dr. Anthony Levenda as mentors that have made the biggest impact on her education while at OU.

Le Roux is currently conducting fieldwork for her eight-month research project from Johannesburg, South Africa.  She notes that the empirical study, “looks to uncover how shared space is used by marginalized people, such as informal traders, the homeless, partially employed (e.g. construction and domestic workers), unemployed or those self-employed through recycling and guarding cars.” Using this research, “they expect to find that some land-use regulations, socio-technical infrastructure and urban plans require marginalized people to (re)negotiate their place.”  Le Roux anticipates learning about logics of place-making, and the ideals, visions, and decisions that inform everyday city life and urban design and planning.

This past summer, Le Roux was nominated to attend the Graduate Student Summer Residency at the National Humanities Center (NHC) in Durham, North Carolina. A cohort of 55 doctoral students from around the United States gathered for two weeks to engage with research, teaching, and learning in the Humanities.  She was the only geographer among the students who were engaged in studying history, literature, sociology, religion, anthropology.  The students considered ArcGIS Online as a teaching medium and as a valuable tool for visualizing research in the Digital Humanities. 

Le Roux has been an urban planner for 12 years but is on her way to becoming an urban geographer.  She hopes to see more clearly in the future “how the geography discipline informs ways of thinking about the city and urban invention.”  The advice that Le Roux has for recent and upcoming graduates is, “Always be open to unlearn the things that don’t serve you and society.  Be ferocious in discovering yourself and the world you live in.” 

Jay Wimhurst has come a long way, over 4,000 miles to be exact, to study at the University of Oklahoma where he is currently pursuing a PhD in Geography.  Wimhurst received his Integrated Master’s Degree in Meteorology and Climate (MMet) in 2017 from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.  He chose the University of Oklahoma for graduate school after taking part in the exchange program offered by OU and Reading’s meteorology departments during the 2015-2016 academic year.  He enjoyed being on the OU campus and everything OU had to offer making it an easy decision to return to the University for graduate school.  Wimhurst completed a Master’s in Environmental Sustainability at OU in May of 2019 prior to starting his PhD studies.

 During his exchange year at OU, Wimhurst met Dr. Scott Greene, Associate Director of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability (DGES).  He knew right away that he wanted Dr. Greene as his graduate advisor because of their shared research interests.  “I knew I wanted to continue studying beyond undergrad so it just made sense to take the opportunity that had been presented before me,” Wimhurst said.  Wimhurst cites Dr. Green as the mentor that has made the biggest impact on his education.  “I have heard so many horror stories about students and their advisors having a bad rapport or even disliking each other, so I am very grateful to have an advisor whom I get along with very well and together we have produced such interesting work.”

When asked what impact pursuing a degree through the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences has had on his education, career, and professional accomplishments Wimhurst responded that there has been many surprises that have crossed his path.  These include having the opportunity to be a Graduate Teaching Assistant.  “I have been a TA for a couple of undergraduate classes offered by DGES which have shown me how much I love watching and assisting in other students’ success.  Because of this I recently decided that I want to pursue a teaching career in college environments.  This is something that I did not expect I would want to do when I started graduate school.”

Wimhurst has had other exciting opportunities during his academic career.  He has been able to attend major annual conferences led by the American Meteorological Society and the American Association of Geographers to present his research.  This past fall Wimhurst was thrilled to have his first journal article published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.  “These experiences have afforded me so much growth as an academic and as a person, for which I feel very accomplished,” said Wimhurst. 

DGES Associate Professor Dr. Laurel Smith praised Wimhurst on his attendance at the 2019 Summer School on Sustainability Climate Risk Management run by the transdisciplinary research network for Sustainable Climate Risk Management (SCRiM) at Penn State University. Conference sessions discussed details of climate modelling processes, consideration of ethics and epistemics when conducting research, and applications of computer programming modules to address practical environmental modelling scenarios.  Wimhurst was able to make numerous contacts with other climate scientists as well as people working in industries adjacent to, but integral to, climate science.  He intends to apply what he learned at the Summer School to his dissertation with a focus on what he gained from environmental modelling sessions.  Just how far Wimhurst will go is anyone’s guess and the Department and College look forward to the journey!

Claire grew up like many other children- loving being outdoors and surrounded by nature. It didn’t take her long to see that the Earth needed people who stand up to protect it! Little things add up to big changes and that’s what led Claire to the sustainability and conservation program at The University of Oklahoma.

Claire Burch is a St. Louis, Missouri native who began her academic career at Miami University just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. She co-majored in Zoology and Environmental Science with a minor in Geography. Burch got a lot of hands on experience spending every summer of her undergraduate education interning at local zoos including the St. Louis Zoo, the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, as well as two summers at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her favorite position was at the Cincinnati Zoo. “That's where I was introduced to sustainability in general,” said Burch. “It was actually voted the greenest zoo in America a couple years ago. They have a sustainability department and I worked as a curatorial intern for a fairly new curator who also had the greenest exhibits. I worked a lot with the sustainability department and talked to them to see how you integrate energy efficiency and water efficiency into zoo keeping. It was an amazing combination of everything I loved.”  

She decided to attend OU for graduate school last year because of her now-advisor, professor Rebecca Loraamm. “I emailed probably 30 different professors in various labs asking about openings, explaining my research interests and she had the best response. I was very excited from the beginning and she had tons of ideas and opportunities for funding,” said Burch. “I accepted the position here without actually visiting because at that point the program was a good fit. Once I came here for a visit and I thought, ‘I like this more than I thought I would.’” For her master’s degree Burch steered herself away from a strong zoology focus and moved toward sustainability and conservation. Much of her past work in zoo conservation and sustainability influenced her current interests. For her thesis work, Burch is researching what people know about the interactions between biodiversity conservation and wind energy development. “It’s a survey with 35 questions evaluating what environmentally conscious individuals know about wind energy’s impacts on biodiversity conservation. There's a common misconception that turbines kill lots of birds and cause habitat fragmentation. We are beginning to get the evidence of what people believe versus what is actually true,” said Burch. She focuses on environmentally interested individuals because it is a smaller group, i.e. it is more feasible for a thesis. They also represent a unique group because they may be supportive of one method over the other. This survey may shape how they perceive wind energy development or biodiversity conservation.  

Through this research she has found that she is really interested in public perception and how we engage with the environment as well as how we can continue to develop more sustainably. Burch recently returned from a workshop in Dublin, Ireland oriented around resource extraction. It was specifically addressing the mining industry and social science. “Do people know about mining? Resource extraction? What are the perceptions of mining and how do we continue to engage with communities when we do these activities?” said Burch. “I was in the community engagement and environmental activities workshop. We attended lectures taught by mentors and broke up into different workshops that were each sponsored by a different organization,” said Burch. “We were sponsored by one of the mining industry companies that was also sponsoring the event. Then we spent the week breaking down how we engage communities, best practices, and worst practices.”

After her Dublin workshop, Burch found there are also a lot of interesting things happening with domestic mining in the United States. However, public perception will be her underlying theme. In the future, she wants to do research for a nonprofit or the government. “There are a lot of human dimensions’ officers in various government organizations. For example, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has an officer that does surveys,” said Burch. She wants to focus on doing surveys, talking to communities about conservation, and about what would make them want to be part of the positive change she so desperately wants to see.
Burch plans to attend a waste conference in October. Though this arena is unfamiliar to Burch, she is excited to learn another aspect of sustainability. She will be doing a poster session on sustainability curriculum together with fellow OU grad Student, Heather Stelter. The goal of the talk is to encourage sustainability in curriculum at other universities. Burch’s other projects include research with Dr. Loraamm using ecological modeling programs to map disease distribution and a potential project with the OU Center for Risk and Crisis Management. She is also part of the Earth Observation Science for Society and Sustainability certificate at the university. This EOS3 program is part of a national traineeship program through the National Science Foundation, which includes four classes aimed at advanced training in interdisciplinary communication, leadership, and data science skills. One course Burch is involved with for the EOS3 certificate has been doing research in southeast Oklahoma on public perception around water resources and they will finish their publication soon.

Being a PhD student at OU is challenging. In addition to the classes, there is research, writing papers, and helping teach other students, but Dorothy “Dolly” Na-Yemeh wouldn’t have it any other way. “There's always that joy when a student comes to you to say ‘oh I really liked your class,’ or the non-geography majors that decide they want to take more geography classes because it’s interesting.” Na-Yemeh said.

As a child, Na-Yemeh used to go into her mother’s garden in Ghana and eat the plants, herbs, and fruit. While her family thought it was odd, that never stopped her from gathering somewhat reluctant mouths. “I would taste them and go gather the kids in my neighborhood, teach them, and sometimes force them to eat the plants” laughed Na-Yemeh. “I had figure out what I wanted to be.” Na-Yemeh said. “Then I thought, what is the best way to teach people to solve problems? The closest thing was geography, so I just followed that.”

Though born in Ghana, Na-Yemeh complete high school in Kentucky due to her father's PhD work at the University of Kentucky. Afterwards she returned to Ghana for her undergraduate education at the University of Education in Winneba. One project she enjoyed was finding ways to improve the ability of geography students to use sketches and diagrams to illustrate graphical phenomena. Through the project she found students can be assisted to overcome this particular challenge and once they overcame, they performed better in geography. “This just fueled my passion for research and helping others.”

After graduating with her bachelors, she started working for her department in Winneba as a teaching and research assistant. She was also part of a research project on wetland conservation and the impact of the sea on livelihoods of fishing communities along the coast of Winneba. “I want to do research because I want to discover new things, figure out new things, and see how stuff works,” she said. This started her on a path toward her first master’s degree in geography at the University of Cape Coast. Then she went on to do a Master of Science in geoscience at the University of Western Kentucky. While there she worked with the Kentucky Mesonet to design geo-profiles for selected Kentucky Mesonet stations. These geo-profiles are described as “data about data.” This includes information like the station elevation, land cover, and other physical aspects. The main purpose of this work was to understand the character of some of these stations better. Weather conditions may be similar across an area but a weather station at an airport and one in a rural town should have vastly different landscape characteristics.   

Na-Yemeh wrote her thesis on synoptic atmospheric conditions, land cover, and equivalent temperature variations in Kentucky. In layman's terms they “were trying to look at the different metrics of understanding weather” said Na-Yemeh. “For example, equivalent temperature is one of the ways people think is better because it incorporates other things such as moisture into the output. Moisture is a stronger indicator of how hot or cold it will be in an area, versus just using air temperature.” Around the time Na-Yemeh was working with Mesonet data in Kentucky, she was considering a PhD in applied climatology. She noticed a project at OU that looks at some of the services provided by the Oklahoma Mesonet and how people use them. “That's what brought me here,” she said. “The Oklahoma Mesonet is at the top of the industry and the closer you are to it the better.”  

For her dissertation, Na-Yemeh is evaluating the benefits of OK-First, an outreach program within the Oklahoma Mesonet that is dedicated to providing weather education, safety, and access to critical real-time weather data. In addition, this semester she has a research assistantship with Dr. Mark Shafer at the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP). This project will look at the impact of extreme weather on military bases. There are five bases in Oklahoma and she will be trying to see what extreme events impact their daily operations as well as the cost. Her goal is to find a way to merge evaluating extreme events and evaluating the benefits of OK-First.

In the future she would like to work with either non-profits or in disaster management. Na-Yemeh is also considering teaching at a University. “Geography and the Mesonet brought me here, but my favorite part of OU is the people. Between our department coordinator, Emalee, the Mesonet and OK-First teams, there's a good support system here.”

Back in high school Heather Stelter thought that recycling was a hoax and that green initiatives were a waste of time. Today she has done a complete 180 and is working to implement sustainable practices in the fashion industry. She began as an undergraduate at the University of Northern Colorado studying American military history and African textile history. She cites her studies in African textile history as what drove her to go into textile preservation. While in college, Stelter visited many museums around the world but said the National Museum-Decorative Arts and History of Ireland was her favorite museum because of the unique textile history in Dublin. Their culture emphasizes sustainability for clothing and it’s ingrained in their way of life. Due to the poverty that plagued Ireland “part of the reason they were able to care for clothing is because it was so expensive, and it was very inaccessible to a lot of people” says Stelter. People had to learn how to repair clothing, and take really good care of what they had because they didn't have much. One aspect of Stelter’s research is figuring out how to get consumers to care about their clothing again in a world full of affordable fast fashion. The ease and accessibility is what consumer love, but fast fashion creates billions of pounds of textile waste per year, which usually ends up sitting in landfills or being burned and creating pollution.

After college Stelter began working at the Greeley History Museum in Colorado where she helped preserve a textile collection that had been left in storage for two decades. Textiles are extraordinarily expensive and difficult to maintain, mostly because sewing, darning and repair are skills most people don't have anymore. Finding someone who has that specialization is really tricky but Stelter already had many of the skills needed. The Greeley collection included about 1,000 textiles and were anywhere from 20 to 130 years old. Prior to her arrival, the collection had been moved from building to building, stored in lockers, and musty old moldy buildings. “The fact that this clothing was still intact is a testament to how well it was made in the first place and how well it had been cared for throughout its lifetime” said Stelter. She said that “working with those piece and helping to put on exhibits...really got me interested in how we extend lifetimes of current clothing.” The Greeley Museum also has a centennial village attached in an attempt to make living history possible, part of which includes replicas of clothing. “We did this whole display before I left on 100 years of dress in Greeley in the Union Colony, and people from all over Greeley...would come in. People had stories about remembering seeing their grandmother in that or having seen an aunt or a friend wear something. It was a really cool connection, and to see people have those fond memories of clothing really sparked a lot of my study for sustainability.”

After leaving the Greeley Museum, Stelter worked full time for a women's athletic wear company called Athleta. Athleta was one of the first B Corporations in the United States, which means the company puts as much money into the environment as they do creating and advertising their products. This includes supporting fair labor practices, being credible and transparent about their sourcing, and making materials that are either from recycled objects or are recyclable. “It's a really rigorous process, there's a lot of vetting to it, so to have earned that tag, to be a B corp is a huge deal and it really means you are buying from one of the most sustainable companies you can” said Stelter. She mainly focused on community outreach programs at her branch, working to bring fitness and healthy diets to girls and women. Though she enjoyed her work, Stelter felt like pushing sales goals was counterproductive to her belief that consumers should purchase less and waste less clothing.

She settled on OU for her masters degree because of the notable sustainability program. Many professors have long sustainability careers and were pioneers in the Oklahoma Wind Initiative, which has pushed Oklahoma to be the 3rd highest wind producing state in the US. Though there is no specialization in fashion sustainability, Stelter doesn't see it as an issue. “There may not be anybody here who focuses on fashion but there are people here who focus on agriculture. Well agriculture directly laces over a lot of my research because I have to look at cotton production, I mean we even look at flax, hemp, and pineapple production...there's a huge cross over. Same thing with people who focus on employment initiatives and fair labor practice, which directly overlays with the fashion industry.” Sustainability is the nexus that has many different aspects. There's so much overlap of subject matter in sustainability that it doesn't really matter what you study.

Since Stelter’s main goal is to involve consumers in sustainable practices, her thesis is developing an app for your phone that will let you scan and enter the information from the “Made In” tag on any piece of clothing you're buying first hand or from a second hand store. The app will give 2 scores, says Stelter, “the first score is a sustainability score so it’ll tell you how environmentally friendly the garment is overall, from where it was produced to what fibers were used in it. The second score is a lifetime expectancy, so lifetime expectancy would help you understand about how many washes the item would last you, whether its durable or not.”

This idea is based on the tagging that Patagonia and Athleta currently have where they discuss the perks of their clothing. It’ll tell you if the garment is water resistant, naturally grown, and even pesticide free. Stelter is also proposing in her thesis that companies add a wash expectancy to their tags. Whenever you would pick up a piece of clothing in a store, on the bottom of the price tag it would say about how many washes you would expect it to last and whether or not that's worth your investment.

Unfortunately, sustainability in fashion is still in its infancy. “10 years ago this wasn't a conversation you could have with anybody” said Stelter. “A year ago we were still talking about how many bags Burberry (a high end clothing retailer) was burning and that it was ok that they were burning them because it was preserving their integrity as a brand. Just 2 months ago Burberry announced that they are no longer burning bags, so this is all very new.” In February 2019 Stelter attended a United Nations sustainability fashion summit, which kicked off Men’s Fashion Week in New York. “It's really cool to go and kick off fashion week with a bunch of designers and students within the industry” said Stelter. The summit was hosted by the ethical clothing company Slow Factory, who has completely stopped production of any clothing until they can find a way to produce items that are totally circular, meaning they won’t end up in the waste cycle. The summit had panelists who were designers, textile developers, and fashion industry professionals, but it also included biologists, NASA Astronauts, MIT Lab researchers, and environmentalists in the discussion. They reminded the industry of the role of global stakeholders and reemphasized that sustainability cannot touch one industry without touching the other. “You can't just talk about reforming how clothing is made or wasted without talking about how people are treated, without talking how people are educated, or how we forward science” said Stelter.

Stelter plans to complete a PhD that focuses on furthering her app and in the future she wants to work as a professor teaching general sustainability. “I really think it should be something that's taught the same as an English class. Everyone has to learn it at some point and I think unless we start teaching it that way, we’re never going to see people fully get into the circular cycle.” She hopes to develop both professional and student programs that allow people to learn sustainability and increase their knowledge or ability as the field grows. This summer she will be interning at the company Natural Fiber Welding that produces products such as natural plant based leather, free of synthetic glues or binding. They are currently working on developing a fully cotton yarn, welded together from other recycled cotton fabrics. With this yarn, they can create a cotton sewing thread, unlike the usual polyester or silk, which can create fully recyclable garments. Stelter will be their sustainability intern, creating samples, testing products, helping with Life Cycle Analysis, and assisting with their cradle-to-cradle program.

Katherine Ho has always enjoyed maps. Throughout her childhood, she and her family visited multiple national parks in the western half of the United States. Ho recalls receiving maps of these parks at each stop, and as a "really nerdy kid" she was also drawn to the maps in the "The Lord of the Rings."

While taking a geographic information science course as an elective at the University of Oklahoma, Ho realized there was an opportunity for her to apply this interest to her career and switched her major to GIS.

"I didn't ever know that it could be a career, and I just thought it was a fun thing that I liked," Ho said. "It was really nice that GIS course happened to be one of the classes I took."

In this major, which is located within the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, Ho learns how to use spatial data to help make decisions. For example, someone with a GIS degree might help a restaurant decide where to open a new location by mapping out current locations and looking at some demographics, she said.

This year, Ho serves as the president of the OU GIS club, and she has also worked at the Center for Autonomous Sensing and Sampling, or CASS, since October. One aspect Ho enjoys is that it is an interdisciplinary research organization, meaning people from across all different majors contribute to the work. Ho works under Dr. Laura Alvarez on hydrology-based research, and one of the other students she works closely with is a computer engineering major. The organization also utilizes drones for atmospheric monitoring projects, so Ho has been exposed to that area of science as well.

"It's really a mixed bag of different perspectives and skills, so it's cool to work with other people and see what they're doing," Ho explained. "I didn't know anything about drones or anything before I started working there, so it's been a crash course to learn how drones work and how the sensing process works, but it's been super fun."

The senior from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, will start OU's Master of Science in geography program next fall and wants to research natural resource management. She said this interest also stems from her family's national park trips.

"Just being exposed to that a lot as a child and doing all the hiking and seeing the natural environment made a big impact on me," Ho shared. "I think they're really important and as much as we can protect but still allow people to see and learn from all of this country's natural resources would be really great."

Small waterways dotted through Oklahoma are home to a diverse set of creatures, but culverts may pose a problem for fish trying to sustain their population. During the summer of 2018, Master's student Parker Fleming slugged tirelessly through 68 streams, all to keep our east Oklahoma fish swimming. He has a special affinity towards fish and is passionate about doing sampling and research.
    Fleming describes his work as “biogeography” a subfield that focuses on the geographical distribution of plants and animals. During his senior year, Fleming applied to work with professor Dr. Thomas Neeson, an OU geography professor who also has a biology degree and specializes in conservation biology. Dr. Neeson received a grant from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife to study “the effects of road culverts and different types of road barriers on fish populations across eastern Oklahoma” says Fleming. “There is a lack of a data set and a lack of fish.” The main concern is that fish have to travel upstream to reproduce in the spring, so if these culverts are blocking their path it may uncover why there is a declining fish population.
    Properly made culverts are structures that allow water to flow under a road, railroad, trail, or other obstruction. Because east Oklahoma is home to logging and farming, some culverts are makeshift and may just be large concrete slabs without proper openings. Even good culverts don’t guarantee the rivers and streams underneath are thriving. In some cases, to try and rectify slowed water velocity, small waterfalls are designed in the culverts that prevent fish from swimming back upstream to spawn.
    From May to August, Fleming and his team of two undergraduates drove across the state to analyze the culverts by collecting various pieces of information. They were analyzing the dimensions of the culverts, stream width, obstructions, and water velocity upstream and downstream. They would also sample fish by scooping a large net through the water, counting how many fish they caught, the number of different species, and the length of each fish. Another part of the project was a “mark and recapture study” where they tagged about 50 fish at each site on one side of the culvert with a visible tag in their dorsal fin.Then they would revisit the area and sample again on the opposite side of the culvert to see if any fish with the tags had made it accross.
    Over the next year Fleming will analyze the data collected and determine conclusions on how the culverts are functioning. By doing this study and developing a dataset Fleming and Dr. Neeson will be able to report to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife any culverts that should be rebuilt by public works projects.

Story written by Kelly Jones

December 14, 2020

A linear career in meteorology was never in the cards for Aisha Owusu, but she was determined to begin, like most, by obtaining a degree in Meteorology from OU. Owusu HEARTS everything that deals with the coupled interactions between the atmosphere and ocean – the science, the natural events, the effects on society, AND the data. It’s all together amazing, wondrous, complicated and terrifying (especially the storm chasing part).

After working as a student employee for the Couch Cafeteria for two years, she was selected for a Research Experience of Undergraduates (REU) Internship through the Norman, OK, National Weather Service, under the direction and mentorship of Daphne Zaras. It was there that she began to stem a passion for weather and climate justice – her REU project, subsequent AMS poster presentation, and McNair Scholar Conference presentation focused on Weather Hazard Awareness in the Oklahoma City Hispanic Community. In this capacity, she was able to use her Spanish minor and love for weather to conduct surveys at community centers, translate information and understand the accessibility, availability, and use of pertinent and life-saving weather forecasts. After the completion of her REU project and up until her graduation, she conducted tours of the different NWC research facilities and documented beta testing procedures for the Radar Operation Center (ROC).

Upon graduation and with the overall scarcity of jobs accompanying the subprime housing and financial crisis in 2007, Owusu jumped at the chance to gain ANY community-engaged and shift-work experience. She engaged in short stints with the Chickasha Nation for a soil-atmospheric campaign launching and tracking radiosondes, and then worked as a National Weather Service Observer at Dallas Love Field Airport. Nearly seven months after graduation, she landed a position as an Operations Marine Meteorologist (or a Voyage Planner Risk Communicator) at Weathernews America, Inc. This position allowed her to utilize her shift-work experience, route ships all around the world, provide short-term forecasts, and afforded her the ability to travel to Japan early in her career, where she engaged with the global Weathernews team and facilitated trainings. Working in the business of fuel economy piqued her interest and caused her to explore a career within weather derivatives at an investment bank – Goldman Sachs in London to be exact. However, after making it to final round interviews and then being rejected as a trader, she was invited back for 12 rounds of interviews over three months for a position within the Goldmann Sachs Human Resources department focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion work, specifically, recruitment, retention, and the career development of marginalized and underrepresented students within Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Until this time, Owusu had only been moonlighting within the realms of career development by offering help to friends, families, and peers. After two years at the financial powerhouse, Owusu left to join Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a non-profit based in New York City that helps high-achieving and underrepresented students of color prepare for the rigor, cultural nuances, fit, competitiveness, and rewards (and disappointments) of corporate America.

However, after taking a four-year hiatus from meteorology and an eight-year break from higher education, she decided to pursue her Master’s degree in Climate and Society (C+S) from Columbia University. Via a chance pizza-slice encounter at orientation with manager and life-long mentor and entomologist, Madeleine Thomson, Owusu was able to utilize her multifaceted work experience, focus, and interest in weather and climate justice to pivot into accelerated research, thesis work, and employment in the nexus of climate and weather, and climate-data democratization.  As Health and Climate Consultant for the World Meteorological Organization and World Health Organization and Climate and Health Research Officer for the Climate Information for Public Health Action team at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, she focused on using climate services, products, and tools (e.g. ENACTS) to help African countries interpret and integrate climate data into sound health policy. She also worked with meteorological agencies in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda to help improve the quality, availability, accessibility, and use of climate data. She created country specific climate and health training for various public health agencies and ministries of health to understand how climate variability and change affect the transmission of vector-borne diseases such as malaria. Immediately after returning from maternity leave, she also started teaching and advising for the C+S Program at Columbia.

Although she loved living in New York City and the climate services work/field within Columbia University, the cost of living and an eagerness to be near family brought her back to her roots in Dallas, Texas, as a Career Development Advisor at SEO. this time she worked remotely, managing a cohort of over 500+ students hoping to land summer internships in bulge bracket investment banks and private equity firms.

While in New York City, Dean Moore brought Owusu back into our college by inviting her to be on the A&GS Board of Advisors. Owusu does not sugarcoat the fact that she was eager and happy to graduate from SoM and A&GS after the completion of her undergraduate studies. Although she was privy to a world-renowned education in meteorology and some life-altering mentorship, Owusu felt entirely disconnected from the SoM and the AG&S as a whole due to subtle microaggressions and racism, lack of representation, lack of comradery and social interests with students, and lack of career development and support.  She never met or knew anyone whom she could emulate or who was symbolic of her future. This was true at OU, but also during her employment within the National Weather Service, the private/public weather industry, and the international climate services industry, and it also applied to the broader community of the American Meteorological Society. However, with time and maturity, she came to realize that returning to OU and A&GS was only right – that SHE wanted to be an agent of change. She often quotes 44^th President, Barack Obama, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

The connective and consistent threads that run through her multifaceted and non-linear career in meteorology, climatology, and beyond have been centered around career development and advisement; diversity, equity, and inclusion justice; and development. She believes that she can directly relate to students because she was once in their shoes, literally. Although there have been many changes, she understands the college and its programs. She believes, with the assistance of the robust and knowledgeable A&GS faculty and staff, that she can help in all efforts of getting students to where they WANT to be. She knows that ALL students CAN work and grow within the intersection of atmospheric and geographic sciences and society – be that through research, domestic/international development, entrepreneurism, or the public/private, NGO, and NP industries. She offers herself as an embodiment of this.

Owusu is a proud mother to a three-year daughter who has MADE her understand the importance of establishing boundaries and the power of humility, empathy, and patience. At the moment, “me” time has become a foreign word. However, she would not have it any other way and loves to take adventure walks and play music with her daughter while they simultaneously live out their dreams of being concurrent Marvel mutants and superheroes (primarily Storm), ballerinas, and astronauts. When not with her daughter, you can find her unabashedly wearing the color purple in much of her clothing and hair, soaking up the sun, reading science fiction or mystery novels when she can find a moment, and doing everything within her power to help students develop, shape, and actualize their purpose and achievements.

She is well aware that she has Mary Anne Hempe’s shoes to fill and legacy to maintain, but she is ready to learn and grow from the A&GS community, and contribute to its success.

November 17, 2020

Mary Anne Hempe has dedicated her career to serving students at the University of Oklahoma (OU) for the past 29 years. Her co-workers, peers, students, and friends will bid her a fond farewell at the end of the current fall semester as she begins her retirement. Hempe is currently the Assistant Dean of Student Services for the College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences (A&GS) where she has been an employee since the College’s inception in 2006. Hempe’s service at OU included positions in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Gaylord College of Journalism.

Hempe’s retirement will leave a huge void and her shoes will be hard to fill. Anyone spending more than a few minutes with Hempe immediately feels her passion for and recognizes her dedication to every student who has stood before her. Hempe’s greatest source of pride in her role as a student counselor is knowing that her support and mentorship to students who were on the brink of failing, struggling academically or personally, ultimately helped them achieve their goal of graduating.  Hempe happily remembers and celebrates every student with whom she’s met from those who struggled to those who excelled. Hempe is proud to say that her actions helped change the structure of advising at OU and is confident that resources will continue to grow after her departure.   

A Fine Arts graduate from Central Michigan University and Western Illinois University, Hempe worked at Oklahoma State University for nine years as first Assistant, then Associate Professor of Theatre.  When questioned as to why she made the move from Stillwater, she responds that it was the atmosphere of Norman and the support system it offered to her young family that drew her south. Hempe began her journey at OU in October of 1991 with the College of Arts and Sciences. Hempe points out that in those days, class schedules were on paper because computer systems for enrolling didn’t exist. Hempe recalls that in those early days there was little academic staff available for advising so faculty members were considered professional advisors. Hempe has seen the advising process come a long way and points to the elevated role of student services as being a major benefit to students. Hempe gives credit for the growth in advising and student services at OU to her personal mentors Ann Corbett and Virginia Odell. She also notes that Former Assistant Dean Pamela Neal played a huge role in her career at OU; Neal was the driving force behind Hempe’s initial hire into the College of A&GS and became Hempe’s primary mentor at OU.  Neal was also a strong advocate of Hempe becoming the new Assistant Dean upon Neal’s retirement in 2009.  Hempe also credits former Dean John T. Snow as an important influence for his leadership and knowledge of academics. 

She adds that along with the value that the University now places on advising, there is also investment in a structure to help students with their personal, financial, and academic struggles. Hempe said that while there is always room for the University and the Colleges to grow, it is satisfying to see how far things have advanced during her tenure. 

Hempe’s advice to current and prospective students is to remember that their time at OU is a temporary, transition period in their lives and should be enjoyed.  She adds that often students start out by saying, “I’m sorry to bother you”, but that they should never be afraid to ask for help.  It is the role of student services staff to be there for any questions, big or small. Hempe also notes that for some students, taking a semester off is beneficial to reset their course even if most are reluctant to consider it at first. Hempe further encourages students to study abroad or find a challenging internship away from Oklahoma saying that it may be the only time in their life when they will be able to do so.  Hempe’s final advice to students is to only take classes that are impactful for their degree program given today’s costs of higher education.  She stresses the importance of students developing a plan and taking advantage of student services resources to ensure that they are on the right path.

Hempe saved her last comments for her coworkers and AGS alumni saying, “It has been so much fun working with all of you!” She says she will remember A&GS fondly and hopes that once the mania of the COVID pandemic is over, there will be an opportunity for a reunion to celebrate how we all have an impact on the College and each other.

Joining several distinguished faculty members, Dr. Ming Xue was among the individuals appointed as an AMS Fellow at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting held this past January.  AMS promotes only the top two percent of its entire membership to Fellow distinction.  “It’s an honor to be recognized for contributions to the atmospheric science field,” stated Dr. Xue.

There are several qualifications to become an AMS Fellow including service to the community, new discoveries, and contributions to education.  Dr. Xue has exhibited these traits and qualities throughout his time as a meteorologist.  Dr. Xue’s greatest contribution is as one of the founding members of the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms (CAPS).  CAPS was established at the University of Oklahoma in 1989 as one of the first 11 National Science Foundation Science and Technology Centers after a competitive proposal process.  “NSF funds only a few Science and Technology Centers every a few years, and such Centers are to solve new grand challenge problems” said Dr. Xue.  He is now the current CAPS Director and a Professor in the School of Meteorology where he does significant work and research in areas of numerical modeling, storm scale dynamics, and data assimilation.  

Dr. Xue was also the principal developer of an open-community Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS).  ARPS is a numerical weather prediction model that specializes in the prediction of thunderstorms in the beginning and is now a general purpose regional forecasting system.  Dr. Xue says “thunderstorm prediction is very challenging,” and “the problem of thunderstorm prediction is still not solved, but we have gotten better.”

Xue is also the holder of the Weathernews Chair in Applied Meteorology.  This endowed chair is possible through the generous contribution of Weathernews, Inc., a Japanese-based meteorology company whose United States headquarters is based right next door to the National Weather Center in Norman.  Xue noted that multiple CAPS researchers and students have gone on to have careers with Weathernews.

Xue offered the following advice to students pursuing basic meteorology degrees, “Be broad in your skillset.  Be good at weather, climate, computer programming, and communication.  Having a combination of these skills will give you an advantage.”

Xue offered a second piece of advice to students pursuing an advanced degree saying, “Communication skills are important, but it is very important to be knowledgeable in math and physics, as well as atmospheric science itself.”  He further added “Equip yourself with modern tools in computing.”

Congratulations to Dr. Xue on his incredible accomplishments and career!

From radars to autonomous vehicles, and all the sky in between, Dr. Phillip Chilson has seen and studied the lower atmosphere from just about every angle. As a child, Phillip Chilson wanted to be a meteorologist, but in high school his attention moved to physics. He got his undergraduate degree in physics from Clemson University, then went to Germany on a Fulbright scholarship and worked in a nuclear research facility for a year. Afterward Chilson did a Master’s in physics at the University of Florida while also working in a temperature and physics lab. When Chilson applied for a PhD, there was an opportunity to do atmospheric physics. “That seemed like a good way to merge my childhood passion with the physics track I was going,” he said. 

For his PhD topic Chilson was using MST radars, which stands for mesosphere, stratosphere and troposphere, to study the three lowest layers of the atmosphere. He was looking at exploring different ways of improving the functionality of radars in Puerto Rico and Japan.

Chilson had an opportunity to go to Germany again for a postdoc for three years to use radars to study the atmosphere. After the postdoc, he accepted a job opening to go to northern Sweden, right above the arctic circle. “It was gorgeous, peaceful, the people were very down to earth, you can get back to nature,” said Chilson. “Of course, it was cold, you had eight months of winter. The coldest I experienced was -40 .” 

After returning from Sweden, Chilson got a position working at a NOAA laboratory in Boulder Colorado. Here he was using radar to study the atmosphere. Then in 2005 he came to OU to be a professor in the School of Meteorology where he later established the Center for Autonomous Sensing and Sampling, or CASS. The purpose of the center is to find better ways of exploring small scale features and determining what is happening in the atmosphere. While in Boulder, Chilson used a type of radar that was for looking at the lowest 2-3 kilometers of the earth's atmosphere, or the atmospheric boundary layer. These lower layers are difficult to study because they are complex, non-homogenous, and they change rapidly.

When Chilson came to OU he decided to do adaption of more weather radar research. He was inspired to implement new techniques for measuring the lower atmosphere after attending a conference. “In 2008 I was attending a conference in Europe and there was a group from Norway giving a presentation on using a small UAV for doing atmospheric measurements in the lower atmosphere. It seemed very intriguing to me, so I went and talked to the person presenting. He gave me a bit of information and I came back and started doing those types of measurements here and it's been growing momentum as we keep going,” said Chilson. “Now we're to the point where were getting funding from different agencies, like the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and NASA.” 

Chilson and CASS are not just using drones for atmospheric measurements, but rather any kind of autonomous vehicles. “We even developed an autonomous boat for doing studies of the different depth of water features in Oklahoma, and also measure how fast the water is moving,” said Chilson. 

Some recent projects, spearheaded by Chilson, sent several OU students around the world. 

During February of last year their team went to Finland to participate in a European Field Campaign for studying stable atmospheric boundary layers. They were the only non-European team, participating with teams from Germany, Finland, and Norway. The campaign took place on a little Island just off the coast of Finland, where the ocean had frozen up around the island. They went out on the sea ice with an instrument developed at CASS called the coptersonde. It's designed for doing atmospheric measurements and can register pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction. 

In the Summer 2018 Chilson went to the San Luis Valley in Colorado with a large team of several undergraduate and graduate students. In coordination with teams from around the world, they collectively registered 1200 flights, making it possibly the largest UAF drone mission or campaign for the atmosphere that's ever-taken place. 

The thing that has been missing in atmospheric research are better measurements for the first 1-2 kilometers from the earth. This new technology from CASS allows researchers to collect data in a very precise and surgical way, which will hopefully improve forecasting. Chilson is excited to lead the CASS team towards new explorations and discoveries.

Environmental Sustainability is talked about in relation to all aspects of our lives: from creating eco homes and environmentally conscious communities, to sourcing sustainable food, renewable energy, low impact furniture, and clothing.

Learning the importance of how the world works at an early age, Mary Lawhon decided to make it her mission to impact the environment and the societies that control it. Lawhon started her quest for knowledge at the University of Kansas where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies. During her junior year, Lawhon was able to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa and this sparked an interest in the country. She then took a semester off and completed volunteer work for the South African NGO EarthLife Africa which focuses on Environmental Justice. “There were a couple of countries I was interested in learning more about, but it was South Africa that had the first opportunity and I was hooked,” said Lawhon.

She then went to the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa for a Master's in Environment and Development. Her Master's thesis was on environmental coverage of South Africa in the media. When she moved to do her PhD at Clark University, she studied electronic waste recycling in South Africa. “I did interviews with people involved in waste policy, and businesses in the recycling industry,” said Lawhon. “There is a disconnect between the laws and the needs of a community and that is something that needs our attention.”

She followed her third degree with a postdoc at the University of Cape Town at an organization called African Center for Cities. Her research focused on alcohol regulation in Cape Town. “We often make rules based on health measures instead of thinking about alcohol as a social thing,” said Lawhon. “We sought to understand and add some depth to the social processes that influence why people are drinking or not drinking or why they stop drinking at 2am rather than 3am. The formal laws have little to do with what most people do, especially in South Africa and looking at it from the individual perspective instead of the law’s changes everything.”

Lawhon’s first teaching position was as a geography lecturer at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She then returned to the United States and taught at Florida State before ending up at The University of Oklahoma in 2017. Her current research focuses on infrastructure, mostly in African cities, and how everyone could be moved to a modern grid. “Modern sewers are expensive, waste water, and have a tendency to break in many places, so I don’t think this is a realistic goal right now.” Lawhon is looking for options that are safe, reliable and dignified that are still cost effective.

“I’m also working on a grant focused on waste and sanitation in Kampala, Uganda with two students from Uganda. One goal is to encourage researchers from the global south to spend time in other places as well,” said Lawhon. “The usual way of doing a grant is that the researcher travels to collect data. Rather than me go there and collect data, they've been collecting data and will come here to spend time writing and processing together.”

Lawhon is currently an Assistant Professor in the OU Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability along with her husband Dr. Pierce who has a joint appointment in DGES and Regional and City Planning. The pair have two kids, Malcom and Rowan, 5 and 3. “Our kids are totally part of the department,” said Lawhon. “My kids love coming to work and the building. They think it’s an awesome place to explore.” 

Today you might see Dr. Palmer driving around campus in his convertible, or having dinner with his family, but back in the 80’s, Dr. Robert “Bob” Palmer was just another college student at OU. He had always been interested in electronics and loved to build things. This led him to pursue his undergrad, masters, and Doctorate degrees in electrical engineering. Palmer’s interests spread over the years, and he quickly found a passion for weather as well. He incorporated meteorology with his PhD degree, using radar to study the atmosphere. He was even able to find some advisors who were also electrical engineers and worked at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory.

After graduation, Palmer went to Japan’s Kyoto University for a post doc. “Working in Japan changed my life,” said Palmer. “I met my wife there, I fell in love with culture. My mother was Japanese, so I always had this affinity for Japan, but the post doc gave me an opportunity to experience it first-hand.” After returning to the US, Palmer did another post doc at Clemson University then earned a tenure-track position at the University of Nebraska in electrical engineering.

OU recruited Palmer back to Oklahoma in the early 2000s to lead the radar program. Palmer grew to be the executive director of the Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC). The main goal of the ARRC is to use technical instruments to study the atmosphere. “We develop cutting edge radars that started out with a focus on studying severe weather and other atmospheric phenomena,” said Palmer. However, recently the center has started to expand their applications of radar to aircraft detection, bug and insect detection, and UAV detection. They also run mobile radars that go out every spring for storm research.  

“We have a strong engineering division in the ARRC where we develop sophisticated phased array radars which are the next generation of weather radars,” said Palmer. You can see an example on top of the Radar Innovations Laboratory in South Campus. "If you look at our building from Highway 9, you'll see a big white thing on top with an OU logo. That is a cylindrical phased array radar.” Horace is another phased array radar project designed in the ARRC and funded by NOAA, the Office of Naval Research, and the Army Research Lab. It is an advanced radar that can do very rapid observations of severe storms in hopes of advancing the way we forecast.

At the ARRC there are both engineering and meteorology students, and several of Palmer’s PhD students in meteorology have simultaneously earned a master's degree in electrical engineering. Palmer has made huge strides in combining meteorology and electrical engineering and has received top recognition in both of these disciplines. “I'm what's called a fellow of the American Meteorological Society which means you're in the top 0.2% of members, but I'm also a fellow of the IEEE which is the International Electrical and Electronics Engineers. I love that I can blend two things that I’m passionate about and I’m very honored to be a fellow of both distinguished societies.”  

OU is at the leading edge of radar research and it is certainly due in part to Dr. Palmer’s vision and leadership. The College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences is lucky to have Palmer’s passion and partnership in advancing the future of weather radar.

“We got the call just a few days before Christmas, and I wouldn’t even answer it,” said Dean Moore when asked about his new NASA grant. “I had already been told NO three times on similar proposals and I couldn’t take another one. I was beyond shocked when they called again and told me I was getting the grant!”

Moore is the principal investigator of a space mission called GeoCarb, which will study the carbon cycle of the Americas. GeoCarb will launch in 2022 and will help explain how carbon moves around the world and what influences that movement. “Our goal for the GeoCarb Mission is to provide observations and demonstrate methods to realize a transformational advance in our scientific understanding of the global carbon cycle—we are not modest!”, said Moore. The instrument will be attached to a commercial communications satellite like a barnacle - just renting some space on the bottom. The idea that NASA will partner with a communication business is a new idea, but one that is looking very promising for the future. “If this model works, NASA will have a whole new approach to studying Earth.” NASA has been studying Earth in a program they call Mission to Planet Earth and have launched other carbon missions, OCO-2 and OCO-3. Those missions orbit the earth and see pieces of the information GeoCarb will see. One benefit of GeoCarb is that the satellite will set in a Geo-stationary position on the Americas and do wall-to-wall monitoring every day.

While $166 million is not much to NASA, it’s huge for the University of Oklahoma. This constitutes the university’s largest grant in all its history and sets us up to compete for other prestigious grants. “This is an outstanding opportunity for the University of Oklahoma to be noticed by not only NASA, but other research groups,” said Moore.

Moore once had a job offer from NASA, but turned it down to come to Norman thanks to the wisdom of his late wife Gail. “Once she had been to Norman she told me we weren’t going to DC after all.” He even noted the time when his daughter was little and used the word ‘funner’ to describe a play date with a friend. Gail proposed to move to Norman because “it will be ‘funner’ than DC”. She influenced many of the family’s big decisions with grace and charm.

OU is a leader in lots of areas from athletics to medicine and now we can claim space science as well. This mission will also have a fun surprise painted on rocket: “Boomer Sooner! Beat Texas!”

Dr. Cameron Homeyer drinks his tea from a Mike Wazowski mug (a popular character from the film Monsters, Inc.) underscoring his sense of humor and personable nature. After finishing his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Cameron began searching for faculty positions. The University of Oklahoma (OU) caught his eye immediately. “OU was really high on my list... it made the most sense for me and my family because the reputation of this program, what it does, the quality that it strives for in both the education and research, and the support that the program has from the university at all levels in terms of enabling our success in meteorology. It is just unmatched in other places.”

In July of 2014, Cameron began his career at OU and  as an Assistant Professor and the Associate Director of Graduate Programs in the School of Meteorology (SoM). He stressed the importance of funding when it comes to research projects. He launched his Convection, Chemistry, and Climate (CCC) Research Group using a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). CCC studies radar meteorology, the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere.

Dr. Homeyer recently received a new grant from NASA for his “Earth Ventures Suborbital 3” proposal.  This project aims to increase the understanding of the summer stratosphere and the linkages between convection, large-scale dynamics, and atmospheric composition. This grant brings $843,000 to OU and his research group, allowing for advances in computational abilities and real-time radar products. Additionally, the grant will fund two students to assist with research and field work.

With the new capabilities of aircraft, satellite, and radar observations, Dr. Homeyer and his researchers have more information than ever before to analyze. While the goal of his research isn’t directly to improve early warning times, it could prove to be an outcome in the future. “…it’s possible that a forecaster could use that information to inform their decision-making, and potentially push the warning issuance up further in time and allow it to be valid for a longer time period; because they can have more confidence in making that decision at an earlier time.”
One of the most significant outcomes of this research thus far has been in severe hail events. Dr. Homeyer’s group focused on unique satellite features called “Above-anvil Cirrus Plumes,” which occur when strong thunderstorms inject ice into the stratosphere. “We found that if we only used that cloud-top signature from satellite to update existing weather service warnings to say that we expect to have two inch or greater diameter hail, we capture 99% of all events…”

Dr. Homeyer is a husband and father of three, with another on the way very soon, and he enjoys getting his kids excited about science in the same way that he does. “… if you introduce them to things they can see, or hear, or feel, then they’re more prone to be curious about that over time.” Every year he grows a garden and teaches his kids about the complexity of nature through flowers and leaves, and each time something happens with the weather, he takes them outside and explains what is going on. “The only reason I study the atmosphere is because I really want to understand how those things work... I want to figure out why, and how, and what. You have to be driven by that curiosity.”

In June of 2017 Dr. Laurel Smith and her family relocated to Puebla, Mexico, where she co-led a three-week summer program, “Indigenous Music and Media,” with a colleague from OU’s School of Music, Dr. Jennifer Slater. Students also traveled to the Sierra Norte mountain community of Cuetzalan, where they visited the Indigenous cooperative Tosepan, which pursues organic and fair trade coffee production, operates a community radio station, and fights for environmental justice.

After the three-week “Indigenous Music and Media” program, Smith returned to the city of Puebla in early August, when she assumed the position of faculty in residence at OU’s Puebla Study Center for the 2017-2018 academic year. During this time, she taught OU students in three classes: “Regional Geographies of Indigenous Media,” “Indigenous Peoples and Resources,” and two rounds of “Environment and Society.” The OU in Puebla program is embedded in the campus UPAEP, a Mexican university where OU students took the rest of their courses. Students either lived with Mexican families or stayed in OU apartments with their peers.

In addition to teaching OU students, Smith had the opportunity to reanimate her research related to Indigenous media made in Oaxaca. She and a grad student interviewed a group of women who made a video in 2003 called Eso viene sucediendo/This has been happening about the violation of Indigenous women’s reproductive rights by medical professionals. Doctors “bullied women into having IUDs inserted without consultation, education or even consent” said Smith. Because the women’s testimonies were recorded on VHS tape more than 15 years earlier, Smith reached out to Witness (an NGO based in NYC) that had supported the video’s production. “I asked them would they please, please, please make that video available online,”. Fortunately they did, and the creators were excited to once again utilize the video because reproductive rights violations in the region continue to this day despite efforts to draw attention to the problem.

In June of 2018, Smith co-led the “Journey to Latin America” education abroad program with OU political science professor, Dr. Charles Kenney. This program consisted of Smith’s class “Indigenous Peoples of Contemporary Peru” and Kenney’s class, “The History and Politics of Peru.” The students stayed with families in various places including “swanky” areas as well as marginalized area that was a shanty town 20-30 years ago.

Smith is honored to return to the position of graduate liaison in the department of geography and environmental sustainability. Smith is now looking to create a service learning course in Puebla that would allow OU students with website creation and entrepreneurial skills to help women promote their enterprise, and in the process, further empower themselves, their families and their community.

November 17, 2020

Growing up in a small German town between Hamburg and Cologne, Buenemann never thought she’d study in Oklahoma – she says a serendipitous meeting with a faculty member made her change course. She met former OU Geography Professor Hans-Joachim Spaeth while taking some of his hands-on courses at her undergraduate university in Germany. These classes, which included field work in New Mexico and Southern California, inspired Buenemann to pursue her Ph.D. in geography at OU.

Buenemann says her interests “cover a lot of ground,” but she’s always been interested in other countries and natural landscapes for as long as she can remember. She initially focused on tourism, but quickly shifted gears to geography – specifically how landscapes form, develop and change over time.

Upon arrival in Oklahoma, all of the pieces started to fall into place as she was granted a teaching assistantship and a graduate fellowship. She says the financial support, in combination with the excellent resources in the Department of Geography, enabled and encouraged her to pursue her studies in the United States. Throughout her studies at OU, she dove deeper into the field of geography learning more about geographic information science (GIS) and biogeography while establishing lifelong connections with many OU faculty members.

After receiving her Ph.D. in Geography from OU in 2007, Buenemann briefly served as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Arizona before beginning as an assistant professor at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 2008. She has since been promoted to associate professor at New Mexico State, and continues to share her passion for geography with others while contributing important research to this complex field. Some of her recent research projects include mosquito surveillance to advance arbovirus control in New Mexico and integrative geospatial mapping of New Mexico’s acequias.

When asked if she has advice for recent college graduates, Buenemann cites three important things to remember: “Figure out what you are great at, how you want to live and what the market needs, and then match these three up in a constantly iterative process. Set yourself apart from others, by networking and presenting at conferences, serving your community and pursuing scholarships. Learn from everything and be open to change.”

As a native of Oklahoma, Becca Castleberry always knew the University of Oklahoma would be her academic home someday.  Both her mother and brother went to The University of Oklahoma (OU) so she knew “following in their footsteps” was a great choice.  Castleberry also was keen on having the “big university experience, within the feel of a small town” that OU offers.  

After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in 2015 in Environmental Sustainability, Castleberry became interested in wind power.  “Dr. Scott Greene sparked my interest in wind power …I decided to examine how this growing industry has impacted Oklahoma’s schools and communities for my research in graduate school.” Finishing her MS in Environmental Sustainability in 2017, her education provided her with a better understanding of what schools are facing today.  The contacts she was able to establish with Oklahoma Public Schools as part of her graduate research prepared her well for her current position as the Program Director for the Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education. It is there where she gets to apply and promote geographic knowledge as a tool for understanding the complex nature of our world and everything in it. 

While the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect, Castleberry believes it has highlighted the need for geographic science education: “The pandemic has given many people a crash course in geography due to its widespread, yet disparate social and economic impacts…I think there will be an increasing demand for people who can think geographically, regardless of their chosen profession.”  

Castleberry’s experiences at OU gave her a look at the world as a whole and how to apply geographic knowledge. Given current events, Castleberry encourages all new Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences graduates to be aware of what is happening around them and the impacts on future research and practice.  Critical evaluation of new information, and staying informed is a must in today’s era of constantly ready information.

Experiencing nature’s fury first-hand, Vivek Mahale is no stranger to tornadoes.  Growing up in cities like DeSoto, Texas, The Woodlands, and Tulsa, he was able to get up-and-close with a swirling whirlwind moving through his neighborhood nearly 25 years ago.  Mahale recalls this as the pivotal moment in his life leading him to the University of Oklahoma.  “Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated by the weather.  I feel incredibly fortunate that I was able to study severe storms. My education at the School of Meteorology is a culmination of nearly a lifetime of interest.”

Currently working as a meteorologist at the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Norman, Oklahoma, Mahale feels he is living his childhood dream.  Mahale is charged with issuing watches, warnings, and weather advisories for the 48 counties in Oklahoma and 8 counties in Western North Texas.  He also provides multiple types of key forecasts for aviation and fire weather.  Additionally, Mahale participates in ongoing research with the NWS in Norman and is involved with outreach to the public.

Mahale remarks that his education at OU was instrumental for his NWS career.  “The School of Meteorology being situated within the National Weather Center and collocated with several units of NOAA gave me a great opportunity that led to my current career.  I was able to easily participate in the SCEP (Student Career Experience Program) at the Norman WFO while pursuing my MS degree.” Mahale received his BS (2009), MS (2011), and PhD (2019) degrees in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, earning his MS and PhD while working at the NWS office.  He applied for the full-time position he currently holds while still a PhD student conducting research.  Mahale’s research was focused on the use of dual-pol radar in the detection of severe and hazardous weather which greatly benefited his NWS colleagues.  Mahale sees the future of meteorology leaning toward numerical weather prediction (NWP) as being of utmost importance.  He stresses that NWP can provide a look into a probability of a forecast days in advance but effective communication of this probability must be a vital aspect.

The School of Meteorology provided excellent support to Mahale as he conducted his studies.  Mahale recalls, “My PhD advisors, Drs. Guifu Zhang and Ming Xue, played an important role during my doctoral research.  I am also thankful for Drs. Howard Bluestein and Jerry Bortzge for serving as advisors during my MS degree.”  Aside from the vigorous studies of physics, calculus, and meteorological dynamics, Mahale enjoyed attending OU football games.  His classmates and friends traveled to numerous OU/TX games and even Big 12 Championships affording a way to kick back and relax from their study and work time.

Mahale encourages current students in the School of Meteorology “to take advantage of the National Weather Center and its occupants!” and to step out of their comfort zone.  He encourages graduate students to endeavor teaching as a great opportunity to enhance communication skills while allowing interaction with diverse groups of students and spreading weather awareness.  Mahale looks back on his own growth and says, “Never stop learning!  Meteorology is still a young science and I am constantly learning new things.”

First captivated by Oklahoma’s ever changing weather patterns, Stephanie Buway always knew she wanted to attend the University of Oklahoma. “Originally I wanted to chase tornadoes for a living! Growing up in Michigan, I did not have any exposure to that, so I thought that sounded like a fun and exciting time. I always liked the outdoors, but I watched the movie Twister way too much, and so that is what I wanted to do! And as we know, OU has the best meteorology program in the country, so that was my dream school.” Buway’s time at OU began as a prospective meteorology student, but then turned to geography after one class with a significant faculty member.

Dr. Scott Greene, a professor and the Associate Chair of OU’s Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, was teaching an Intro to Physical Geography class that Buway was enrolled in. When asked about Greene’s influence on her change to geographic sciences, Buway remarked, “Not only was I always interested in outdoor science, the environment, things like that, but when I met Dr. Green, it just clicked. I may not be getting a meteorology degree anymore, but I think I found where I fit in this world. The opportunities that he provided through letting me work with the Oklahoma Wind Power Initiative, I could not have asked for a better experience in my life. That pointed the arrow in the direction of where I am at today. He continues to still be my mentor, and I still look to him for advice.”

Buway recalls her favorite memory from OU was when she was working at the Oklahoma Wind Power Initiative, and getting to accept the Wind Working Group of the Year Award at the Wind Power Conference in Los Angeles in 2007. She graduated with her B.A. in Geography in 2005, and then her M.A. in Geography in 2007. She currently works for DTE Energy on their renewable energy solutions team. She mentions, “My primary focus right now is on net metering and distributed generation projects, or private solar systems basically. There are aspects of using my geography degrees for this, you need to look at climate maps and understand a lot of dynamics. Geography taught you how to look at the world kind of as a whole, and the interactions. I deal with a lot of customer issues, and I am learning a lot about engineering.” Buway is currently also pursuing an M.B.A. from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. A current class she takes, Urban Business and Sustainability, has opened her eyes to the future of geography: “So much of geography is tied into green infrastructure work. Studies of human and earth interactions, and humans can utilize green infrastructure not only for corporate benefit, but for our own well-being. How it drives patterns of what humans do, just the whole topic of green infrastructure really struck a chord with me. Green infrastructure is something that is going to help communities thrive…the topic reminded me of being back in school with Scott.”

Buway’s advice for current A&GS college students is, “Enjoy it, and have fun! Learn a lot, because there is a lot to learn. Get involved with any groups on campus that are doing what you are interested in. Find organizations in the community that you can also get involved with. Start creating your network now, and get to know people in the fields that you are interested in. Networking is key, also be engaged and ask questions!” Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, Buway provides some words to those who have just graduated, “You have gained valuable skills, and pandemic or not, they will always be with you. This too shall pass, and you will still find a career, and there are still people that need intelligent young graduates that are eager to go out into the world. We are still going to have sustainability issues, there is no slowing that down…those are moving forward. Stay resilient, and don’t worry. You are going to end up where you belong in a good career!”

Can one course change the trajectory for someone’s career?  Tyler Farling would say it does.  Farling graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2014 with a BA in Environmental Sustainability.  He continued his studies earning a Master’s Degree in Fisheries Biology at Oklahoma State University.  He now enjoys his career as a Geographic Information Science (GIS) Analyst for the State of Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office.  His job includes mapping Utah's backcountry roads and taking 360-degree videos to show current ecological and road conditions.  Farling credits his GIS career to OU’s Dr. Todd Fagin whose Intro to GIS course he took as part of his undergraduate studies.  “Little did I know this one class would help me in grad school with my research project and start my career after school,” said Farling.   

Farling discussed his time at OU saying, “When I finished my degree at OU, I felt well rounded, prepared, and confident going into my next venture which was grad school.  The tools I was given have helped me in my everyday work as a GIS Analyst.  It has also given me the confidence to feel I can compete in today's workforce.”  Farling said the people in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability (DGES) that made the biggest impact on him were Dr. Darren Purcell, Dr. Todd Fagin, Dr. Gary Gress, and Dr. Travis Gliedt, all of whom he remains in touch with to this day.  One of Farling’s favorite memories was when Dr. Gliedt sponsored a series of keynote speakers at OU.  “Getting to meet these people, go out to dinner with them, and truly pick the brains of experts in the field of Geography and Environmental Sustainability is something I will never forget and was truly a gift.”

Farling thinks that the future of DGES has many pathways.  “GIS, in particular, is playing a huge role in many fields.  It is a very versatile skill to pick up while you are going through school.  As pressure on natural resources and the environment from population growth continues to grow, the understanding of how these natural and manmade systems co-exist will become more and more important.  All the above professions will move to the forefront in my opinion as we try and dig our way out of the hole we have dug for ourselves as a species.”

When asked about advice he would give graduating seniors, he encourages them to immediately get an internship and start networking.  He urges students to find companies that are hiring recent graduates or have a pathways program.  Farling stresses that students not waste time thinking somebody is going to hire them just because they have an education.  Instead he insists that gaining immediate experience will help individuals go further in the long run.

Farling saved his final advice for current students.  “Learn GIS, do an internship while in school, gain experience.  Think about what you want to do and how far you want to go in your education.  It is a fine balance, but experience will always win out in the end.”

Dr. Josh Hatzis is not from Oklahoma originally, but now calls Oklahoma home having built a life here in just a few short years.  Originally from Geneva, Illinois, a far western suburb of Chicago, Hatzis recently completed his PhD and now works with Oklahoma University’s (OU) prestigious Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS). 

Hatzis received his undergraduate degree from Northern Illinois University in meteorology.  While there, Hatzis worked in the Chesapeake Energy Weather Division relating teleconnection indices and sea surface temperatures to winter temperatures.  One undergraduate class he remembers well was Applied Climatology where a student assignment was to interact with local businesses to answer questions of interest related to climatology. His love of research drove Hatzis to graduate school in pursuit of a Master’s degree in geography from Northern Illinois University. 

He was an adjunct faculty member at the College of DuPage teaching a climate course for two semesters and then worked at WeatherNews, a logistics company primarily involved in routing ships.  Upon leaving WeatherNews, he started a degree program to earn his PhD in Geography from the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability (DGES) at OU with the goal of doing research at a university or government agency after graduation.

“I chose OU initially because I had intended to pursue a PhD in Meteorology and OU has one of the top severe storms programs in the country,” said Hatzis.  After discovering what the DGES had to offer, he changed his focus to study the impacts of severe weather on climatology.  “I chose to work with Dr. Jennifer Koch because of her expertise with spatial modelling and geographic information systems.”

His dissertation focused on analyzing the impacts of tornadoes across time and space.  He did this by estimating the number of people who live in the damage path of a tornado and comparing this number with historical and future numbers to understand how the impacts change over time and space.  “I developed a model to simulate tornado paths and the number of people exposed to the simulated tornadoes,” said Hatzis.  This model was unique from other previous models in that it didn’t use historical climatology to place tornadoes but instead looked at atmospheric environmental conditions and placed tornadoes randomly within the areas with the most favorable conditions for tornado development.”  This model allowed him to randomly simulate hundreds of years’ worth of tornadoes to get a broader picture of potential tornado exposure. The model is also a first step towards being able to project tornado impacts on days with severe weather threats.

Now a recent graduate, Hatzis described his experience in the DGES with admiration. “All the faculty have always been very helpful and friendly towards me.  I have been encouraged to attend the national and regional American Association of Geographers conferences with the department sometimes paying for part or all of the trip and accommodations.  At these conferences I have gained experience presenting my research and meeting and talking with other scholars.  I’ve always felt comfortable going to my committee members for help with my research when I needed it.”

In his job as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in CIMMS, Hatzis is part of the societal impacts group and hopes to continue studying human behavior surrounding tornado warnings to better understand how and why people seek shelter and whether they do it safely or place themselves in harm’s way through their actions.

Hatzis is also interested in teaching students and professionals how to code to help solve their research problems. “I believe that in a world of big data being able to code can dramatically increase one’s productivity and it is something I think all scientists should learn,” he said.

Not many people can say they've been to a rocket launch, but that’s just one of the cooler days on the job for OU alumni Alek Krautmann. For the past year and a half, he has been working at NOAA for the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. His job since being in Washington DC has been more policy based, a far cry from his education and former career in meteorology. Krautmann went to OU for a Meteorology undergraduate from 2006 to 2010 and then went away for grad school to Ohio University for a M.S. in Geography. After that, his first job was back in Norman working for Dr. Mark Shafer at the Southern Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP) in the National Weather Center at OU. SCIPP is part of the climate survey and is a NOAA funded grant program. During this time, the Oklahoma drought was having severe impacts and most of the work at SCIPP was drought assessment and stakeholder engagement. They also planned drought forums in towns that were affected and conducted a review of the 2013 tornado disaster in Moore.  

Afterwards Alek moved to the Big Easy, better known as New Orleans, where he was a forecaster for the National Weather Service for three and a half years. This role was more day-to-day weather, forecasting, radar monitoring, and keeping track of the local weather and climate information. Despite his past in weather, Alek has always been interested in policy. “I got more interested in 2011. I did this program by the AMS called the policy colloquium. That was a 10-day course in DC where you learn about science policy and how science is used in government” he said. “That introduced me to it...so when I had the chance to switch my job to this role in DC, I thought ‘oh I guess I'll give it a shot.’ And so far it's been different, but interesting.” Krautmann remarked that he has not gotten used to the lifestyle. “Funny, I notice how much more crowded and busy and faster it is. I mean that sounds so small town, but it's kind of a different pace on the east coast.”

NOAA has six divisions or line offices, one is the Weather Service, another is the Ocean Service, as well as the Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Krautmann’s current office. Most of what he does is prepare documents for their administrator’s meetings and events. Any time the director of NOAA has a meeting, an event, or has to give remarks on anything related to their division, he prepares the materials. This can be writing remarks or collecting background information about a program or project. “In the policy world in DC, we actually operate on memos, we call them a three things memo. The whole idea is to determine the three most important things that their boss would need to know going into a meeting or an event...It's weird in the policy world, I feel like a bureaucrat,” joked Krautmann.  

Though his job is not what he envisioned in school, he has always wanted to work for NOAA. “I'm really proud to be working for NOAA. No one in the world has an environmental monitoring, research, and prediction mission like NOAA does and so it's fun to be a part of that,” he said. One thing Krautmann didn't anticipate was that working in policy has removed him from the day-to-day weather and forecasting. “I didn't really expect that but to be effective at headquarters, I think they need people who are really familiar with the subject matter,” he said. “Even though I may be talking about decisional items or programming updated or budget items, it's all about weather satellites, and climate data archives and new environmental products...It’s safe to say that in DC, people have more of a public policy, public administration, or a communications background. They can be very knowledgeable in the field and very good, but I think having a few people like myself that are more natively familiar with science is helpful.”

One of the most interesting things Krautmann has done for work has been going to a rocket launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida. They had NOAA satellites on the SpaceX Falcon Heavy which launched in June. “It went up at 2:30 in the morning, it was so interesting and funny to be at this marathon event. That was a day that started at around 7 am and they launched at 2:30 am the next morning. It was crazy to be working it and part of it overnight.”  

Krautman was also recently embroiled in scandal. “So, I brought in bagels to work in DC for one of my coworkers, it was her last week, and so I ordered them from Panera which is a St. Louis company. So, growing up around St. Louis you get them sliced up like little pieces like bread, so you can share them and snack on them. My coworkers thought it was hilarious, so I posted a picture and tweeted that I have these St. Louis style bread sliced bagels and my coworkers thought it was a hit. A few days later people ended up seeing it and it made New York City people mad, it totally went viral and I just couldn't believe it was about bagels.”  

Do you have an opinion on bread sliced bagels? Have a look for yourself https://twitter.com/alekkrautmann/status/1110341506802552832?lang=en.

Most four-year olds prefer to watch Barney or SpongeBob, but not Tabitha Kloss. She loved watching shows about extreme weather— specifically, tornadoes. Flash forward to 2018, Tabitha is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma (OU) School of Meteorology (SoM).

“When I flew out to Oklahoma, toured the OU campus, and saw the National Weather Center (NWC) ... I knew immediately that it was the right fit.” She credits attending the University of Oklahoma as one of the best decisions she’s ever made.

Tabitha took advantage of all that SoM had to offer. For four years she was a “Weather Friend,” a student group of weather superheroes who engage with local children. She also worked as a student assistant in the NWC library and a data quality analyst for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility.

Tabitha volunteered during her senior year with the National Weather Service, and spent a year working on research with the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms. The NWC was Tabitha’s second home.

Tabitha received the prestigious Hollings Scholarship during her junior year, which provided her funding for school and a paid summer internship. She spent that summer interning in Anchorage, Alaska conducting research projects with the Alaska Aviation Weather Unit and the Center Weather Service Unit. This internship heavily influenced Ms. Kloss’s future aspirations.

“Dr. Kloesel taught Weather Information in Support of Critical Decision Making which showed just how far-reaching the impacts of weather are on every day life.”

In the summer of 2018, Tabitha worked as the Meteorology intern for Southwest Airlines, a highly coveted position. She briefed the Network Director, Chief of Network, Chief of Dispatch, Air Traffic Control, and other representatives; an impressive feat for a new college graduate. Admittedly, this was originally nerve-wracking for Tabitha, but in the end, she said this made her a more confident communicator.

“My experience at OU has shaped who I am today in so many ways... I learned a lot about leadership during my time at OU... I developed a strong work ethic and effective time management... My professors pushed me and challenged me in the classroom, which made me more confident about what I learned.”

Tabitha is currently pursuing an MS in Safety Science with a focus in Aviation Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. In the future, she hopes to return to work for Southwest Airlines or another airline, in either aviation meteorology or aviation safety. Currently she is in another prestigious internship with Southwest Airlines, but now she is in the aviation safety side of their program.

From classes, to internships, to clubs, the OU School of Meteorology has opened doors for Tabitha Kloss that she could never have imagined. “All of the faculty and staff in the college, as well as my friends, helped me to flourish and find my way, and for that, I could not be more grateful. Even if I’m not in Norman anymore, OU will always have my heart.”

John F. Crowley III (Jack) grew up milking cows and throwing newspapers in the bucolic Connecticut countryside.  He dreamed of becoming an architect that designed cities (later finding out that it was called city planning).  Crowley took the Greyhound Bus in 1963 to study Architecture at The University of Detroit only to get caught up in the 1965 war draft. 

The United States drafted troops to the front lines as the Vietnam War raged on throughout the 1960s. Crowley was one of those brave men who was called for war. For four years he put his education on hold to aid war efforts through language training and field artillery commissions.

Once released from his job as Chief of Foreign Military Training at the Field Artillery School in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma in 1969, he looked to finish his interrupted education. The "nearest" place was said to have people in red pants chasing a covered wagon in circles and that seemed a lot better than circles of Howitzers. He received his bachelors in both History and Art History at OU before pursuing a masters in Regional and City Planning. These were the first steps that led to his pursuit of a doctorate in Geography, with a focus on Urban Studies and his dissertation in Urban Stormwater Management.

Academia began calling and Crowley answered the call. He moved to Georgia. There he sculpted not merely parks systems but future intellects as he worked as an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Georgia’s School of Environment and Design for a three-year stint.

Crowley entered corporate America in 1980 as the development vice president of Williams Realty Corporation. The company built more than $2 billion of mixed use projects in downtown Tulsa, Kansas City, San Antonio, Denver, and Charlotte during his tenure.

“Planners and geographers are capable of managing and directing a very broad spectrum of career undertakings” Crowley said, noting his success across many diverse companies and fields.

While Crowley enjoyed his successes with Williams Realty Corporation, he longed for a return to his academic days. Crowley decided to return to the University in Georgia more than 15 years after he left. He served as the Dean of the College of Environment and Design for 10 years. He also founded the Master’s program for Environmental Planning and Design. He continues teaching and managing the program today.  In addition to educating new planning and design practitioners, Crowley spreads the "Gospel of Good Development" at an American Chartered Agriculture University (Zamorano Univ.) in Honduras that serves students from all over the Caribbean and Central and South America.  He also serves as Secretary to the (International) Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Buildings and Grounds Committee.

Crowley continues to keep in touch with those at OU and has done so for the last 40 years. He recalls the many changes time brings, like how when he began at OU the Geography program was housed in Dale Hall. Today, the program is housed in Sarkeys Energy Center and has called a couple of difference colleges home.

Geography also expanded academically with the additions of Environmental Sustainability and GIS degrees to the repertoire. These are academic journeys as diverse as the myriad of related professions Crowley practiced.

Can one class change your life?  That’s exactly what happened for DGES alumna Stacia Canaday.

Starting out as a geology major, Canaday stepped out of her comfort zone and took a leap of faith. A leap of faith that paid off and led to a nearly 20-yearlong romance with GIS.

Enlivened by the resources offered at the University of Oklahoma, Canaday loved the smaller college feel within the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability. She felt connected to her roots.  The balance brought by such resources opened the door to new relationships and opportunities, like national conferences and working in the Dean’s Office. These experiences opened Canaday’s eyes to what universities and their alumni can offer students.

The summer before her senior year, she began working in an undergraduate research program utilizing GIS and Mesonet data through the National Science Foundation.  Her plans to become an analyst or technician post-graduation were now in question. One of her professors encouraged Canaday to look into the business side of GIS. In 2001 she graduated to begin a career at a survey and consulting company.  She learned about business and developing relationships, but more importantly, she became connected to ESRI, Canaday’s current employer.

ESRI is the developer of ArcGIS, one of the world’s most powerful mapping and spatial analysis softwares.  The mission of ESRI is to solve problems.

“The axiom that everything is somewhere holds true,” Canaday said about her work. “Whether you run a business, manage a city, or make a difference in the world, why not use maps and location to communicate and make better decisions.”

Canaday’s journey with ESRI began as an instructor. She turned her opportunities into growth to become a sales manager on the Utilities Team.  She leads and inspires a team of seven account managers who complete projects for companies ranging from electricity to telecommunications.

Canaday loves how much her current job may change from day to day. She enjoys learning new things and she rarely goes a day without learning something new.

“One day I’ll be working with an electric utility - experimenting with infrared sensors on drones to detect busted solar panels based on their IR signatures - and then next I’ll be talking to a group of people at a cable company working to figure out the best areas to offer low-cost or free internet service to underserved populations,” she said.

Learning new things day-to-day means dealing with all sorts of new and upcoming technologies. Canaday has seen her fair share of technological improvements over the past 18 years in the GIS industry.

“I am fascinated by the democratization of GIS and how accessible GIS has become,” Canaday said. “Sure, we still need GIS professionals, but the way technology has enabled more people in an organization or community to use GIS has actually freed up the GIS pros to be more creative and tackle even bigger challenges.”

Canaday wants students and alumni to know the many great opportunities ESRI has to offer. ESRI is a great place to create a career and grow. She encourages those in GIS to pursue their passion while staying up-to-date on the latest trends and technology at ESRI.

“Whether you are just starting out or in the middle of your career, ESRI is at the forefront of GIS science and we need more people from OU driving the industry forward,” Canaday said. “Don’t be intimidated… If I can do it, anyone can!”

Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 2 to serve as President Donald Trump’s science advisor.  The meteorologist and former University of Oklahoma vice president for research was nominated by the President to head the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). This position helps create policy for science, but also provides science to help create policy.

Droegemeier said of his role, “"Science for policy is where the job of this office is to make sure we bring the best possible science to the table when there is any kind of policy decision to be made," he said. "Whether the policy deals with a potential disease outbreak, water contamination, the creation of new industries, removing regulatory barriers — science usually has something to say about that. We make sure we bring the best science forward so that the president and members of the executive branch have what they need to make decisions."

This is not his first political appointment: He was appointed to the National Science Board, which governs the National Science Foundation, by George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and served in former Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin’s cabinet as the secretary of science and technology. He said he enjoys communicating scientific principles to non-scientists.

Droegemeier had the support of Oklahoma's senators throughout the confirmation process. Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma City Republican, said on twitter, "Dr. Droegemeier is a highly qualified scientist and researcher, and I am confident he will serve our nation well."

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, a Tulsa Republican, also congratulated Droegemeier on Twitter, calling him a good friend. Sen. Jim Inhofe, another Tulsa Republican, said the OU professor is the right person for the job.

"The president requires the most well-qualified advisers and Dr. Droegemeier provides the experience and ability necessary to get the job done right," Inhofe said in a statement.

An expert on extreme weather, Droegemeier earned a B.S. with Special Distinction in Meteorology in 1980 from the University of Oklahoma, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in atmospheric science in 1982 and 1985, respectively, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He joined the University of Oklahoma faculty in September, 1985 and in 1987 was named a Presidential Young Investigator by the National Science Foundation. He served as a faculty member until taking a leave of absence to serve in the White House. He will be the first meteorologist to serve as a president's science adviser; all others have been physicists.

Megan McDaniels graduated from OU in 2017 with a B.A. in Geography.

Megan grew up in Owasso and achieved salutatorian at Oologah-Talala High School. When she was 15 she joined her school's golf team and discovered her passion for the sport. "I fell in love quickly but practiced like crazy because I stunk at first," joked McDaniels. She chose OU because of the scholarships and the opportunity to be involved in activities such as the President's Community Scholars, a program aimed at immersing new freshman into college life through community service, outreach, mentoring, and more. She was also active in her sorority, which participated in many philanthropic and fundraising events over the years.

During her time at OU, McDaniels switched majors multiple times. Her path meandered through pre-nursing, international business, health and exercise science, and international security studies. She happened to take a class with retired geography Professor, Fred Shelley, and she cites him as the main reason for switching to a geography degree. "I had always had a fascination with geography, I just didn't know much about the phenominal program until my junior year at OU," said McDaniels. "Once I officially became part of the program, I realized how I should have been there the entire time."

While focusing on her studies and other activities, McDaniels continued golf as a hobby. She helped establish and govern the OU golf club team in 2014. Over her years at the university the team grew and regularly traveled to compete against other club teams in the region. After graduation, McDaniels was able to return to her passion and turn it into a career.

McDaniels said, "It's super rare for girls to work in golf management," and she feels lucky for the opportunity. She is currently an assistant golf professional at Bailey Ranch Golf Club in Owasso, Oklahoma. No two days are alike working at the Club. Her duties include sales and customer service in the Pro Shop, tournament operations, as well as coaching and teaching high school golfers. This past year, she was the varsity golf coach for boys and girls at the Rejoice Christian High School. The boys team improved their scores at almost every tournament of the season and made it to regionals. The girls team, which consisted of only four girls, qualified for the state golf tournament and their top player placed second at that event.

She is enrolled in the PGA's (Professional Golf Association's) Professional Golf Management program. It typically takes three or four years to complete it and become a PGA member. "The fact that I already have a bachelor's degree will help to decrease that time frame" said McDaniels. This is a rigorous educational program for aspiring golf professionals with focus on the people, the business, and the game of golf. There are a variety of courses within this program, from business and customer relations, to turfgrass management and advanced teaching and clubfitting. She travels to Port St. Lucie, Florida once a year for PGA seminars. This year 150 young aspiring professionals, about 10 of whom were women, gathered from around the country to learn the finer points of golf management.

This past year she played in tournaments around Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. Her favorite golf course so far is the Patriot in Oklahoma, but one day she hopes to play at St. Andrews Links in the UK or Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, where 2018 Masters were held. Her sports idol is Justin Thomas, one of golf's latest skyrocketing superstars. McDaniels goal is to be a Director of Golf and manage a course one day. For now she is extremely happy at Bailey Ranch Golf Course, mostly "because of the people who are genuine and kind," said McDaniels. She also likes that she gets to meet many different kinds of people of all ages, and it doesn't hurt that she can hang out with the Club's chocolate lab, Maggie, whenever she wants.

Story written by Kelly Jones 

Bill Schriever

August 19, 1926 – March 1, 2019

This past March the College lost a dedicated and passionate donor, Dr. William “Bill” Schriever. Anyone who knew Bill knew he wanted to solve problems and make the world a better place, starting with his community, and carrying on to his county, state, and planet.

Bill had a lifelong interest in politics, and he believed in studying issues in depth. That habit came from his academic background. Bill's father was a professor of physics and head of the Physics Department at the University of Oklahoma from the 1920s into the 1950s. Bill received his undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1946, then went to the University of Illinois and then to Harvard in pursuit of a PhD.

If Bill got into a discussion with someone over something, he would often give them a copy of a favorite book on that subject. He assumed that if someone was interested in a subject then surely they would want to read a good book about it. Dean Berrien Moore at the University of Oklahoma was always interested and he read the books Bill sent him because they were always on point. Besides a generous gift that will establish the William Schriever Endowed Professorship in A&GS and the Schriever Graduate Stipend, he also wanted OU to have numerous books, manuscripts, and memorabilia from not only his personal studies, but also those of his fathers. There were over 60 plus years of material covering climate, physics, and meteorology, plus many other topics in his wonderful donation.

Bills passion for learning and generous spirit will truly be missed. He made the world a better place, and for that we are grateful.