People

Christiane Jablonowski

Professor

Email: cjablono@umich.edu

Phone: (734) 763-6238

Fax: (734) 936-0503

Office: CSRB 1541B

ResearcherID: I-9068-2012

Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome

Assistant Research Scientist (Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) at UM)

Research Interests

• Polar physical oceanography
• Numerical modeling of sea ice and ocean/lake hydrodynamics
• Lake ice and lake effect snow in the Laurentian Great Lakes region

Contact
Email: ayumif@umich.edu | CIGLR Webpage

Garrett Limon

Ph.D. Student, Climate and Space

Research Interests

• Data science and machine learning
• Machine learning emulators for physical parameterizations
• Simplified modeling frameworks in NCAR’s Community Atmosphere Model (CAM)

Contact
Email: glimon@umich.edu | Webpage

Joseph (Joe) Hollowed

Ph.D. Student, Physics

Research Interests

• Computational fluid dynamics and physics
• Idealized volcanic eruptions
• DoE’s E3SM model: Impact of Mt. Pinatubo on the atmospheric circulation (CLDERA project)

Contact
Email: hollowed@umich.edu | Webpage

Lisa Nguyen

Ph.D. Student, Applied Physics

Research Interests

• Precipitation processes
• Stratospheric circulation in the DoE climate model E3SM / CMIP6 analyses

Contact
Email: lisaminh@umich.edu | Webpage

Alexander (Alex) Lojko

Ph.D. Student, Climate and Space

Research Interests

• Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs)
• Impact of North-American MCSs on large weather prediction errors (forecast busts) over Europe
• Ensemble simulations

Contact
Email: alojko@umich.edu | Webpage

Anthony Chen

Ph.D. Student, Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics

Research Interests

• Applied Mathematics
• Numerical methods for geophysical flows
• Particle methods and tree codes

Contact
Email: cygnari@umich.edu | Webpage

Owen Hughes

Ph.D. Student, Climate and Space

Research Interests

• Idealized test cases for General Circulation Models (GCMs) with orography
• Model intercomparisons
• Dynamical Cores of atmospheric GCMs
• Deep-atmosphere equation sets and dynamical cores

Contact
Email: owhughes@umich.edu | Webpage

Aaron Johnson

Ph.D. Student, Climate and Space

Research Interests

• Atmospheric Dynamics
• Impact of the 2022 Hunga-Tonga volcanic eruption on the atmosphere

Contact
Email: aaroj@umich.edu

Yuyang (Victor) Rao

Undergraduate Student, Physics
expected: B.S. in Physics, class of 2024

Research Interests

• Atmospheric dynamics
• Idealized test cases for General Circulation Models (GCMs)
• Model intercomparisons

Contact
Email: vicrao@umich.edu

David Wright

Scientist, NOAA Great Lakes Environbmental Research Laboratory (GLERL, since 9/2022)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2020-2022)
Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) Postdoctoral Fellowship (2019)

Research Interests

• Lake-effect snow storms in the Great Lakes region
• Land-lake-atmosphere interactions
• Coupling of NOAA’s limited-area forecast system UFS-Short-Range Weather (SRW) Application to the lake model FVCOM

Contact
Email: dmwright@umich.edu | Webpage

Lydia Gilbert

Ph.D. Student, Atmospheric Science, University of Colorado, Boulder (since 8/2022)

B.S.E in Earth System Science (Meteorology), University of Michigan 4/2022
Undergraduate Researcher (Sep. 2021 – Aug. 2022)

Research Interests

• Lake-effect snow storms in the Great Lakes region, weather prediction models

Contact
Email: glydia@umich.edu

Ashley Payne

Atmospheric Scientist, tomorrow.io (since 11/2021)

Assistant Professor, UM Climate and Space (since 9/2018-10/2021)

University of Michigan President’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow (9/2016-8/2018)

Research Interests

• Large-scale atmospheric dynamics of landfalling atmospheric rivers 
• Dynamical interactions behind extreme precipitation and weather events 
• Representation of Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs) in variable-resolution climate mode

Contact
Email: aepayne@umich.edu

Jared Ferguson

Senior Regulatory Analyst, California Public Utilities Commission (since 10/2020)

Legislative Aide, California State Government, Sacramento, CA (10/2019-9/2020)
California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) Science Fellow (11/2018 – 10/2019)

Ph.D. (2018), Applied Physics Program and CLASP, University of Michigan

Research Interests

• Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) techniques, AMR library Chombo
• Dry and ‘moist’ test cases for shallow water models
• Tropical cyclones

Contact
Email: joferg@umich.edu | Jared’s LinkedIn page | former UM Webpage

Gregory Tierney

Scientist, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, since 4/2021)
Postdoctoral Fellow, North Carolina State University (2017-2021)

Ph.D. (2017), University of Michigan

Research Interests

• Extratropical cyclones
• Sensitivity of idealized extratropical cyclones to changes in the background conditions (using the WRF model) 
• Effects of latent heat release on extratropical cyclones

Contact
Email: getierne@ncsu.edu | Greg’s LinkedIn page

Malgorzata Winska

Assistant Professor and Researcher, Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), Poland (since 2013)

Visiting Assistant Research Scientist (Oct. 2015 – Sep. 2016) at the University of Michigan

Research Interests

• Geophysical models (atmosphere, ocean, land hydrology) and intercomparisons 
• Irregularities of the Earth’s rotation
• Low degree gravity changes as determined via NASA’s GRACE mission (intercomparison and determination of geophysical excitations)
• Excitations of polar motions

Contact
Email: m.winska@il.pw.edu.pl

Allison Hogikyan

Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University (since 5/2023)
Ph.D. (2023), Princeton University

Undergraduate Researcher (9/2014 – 12/2015), University of Michigan

Research Interests

• Simplified physical parameterizations: Kessler warm-rain scheme
• Moist idealized tests of GCM dynamical cores: Moist baroclinic waves
• Atmospheric Blocking

Contact
Email: hogikyan@princeton.edu

Diana Thatcher

Computer Scientist, The MITRE Corporation, Ann Arbor, MI (since Feb. 2016)

M.S. degree (2015), University of Michigan

Research Interests

• Model intercomparisons
• Idealized test cases for GCM dynamical cores: Moist Held-Suarez test 
• Variable-resolution modeling with GCMs (CAM Spectral Element model): Extratropical transition of tropical cyclones

Contact
Email: diana.r.thatcher@gmail.com   |   former UM Webpage

James Kent

Scientist, U.K. Met Office, U. K. (since July 2020) 

Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science, Lecturer (Mathematics), University of South Wales, U. K. (Jan. 2015 – June 2020) 
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Michigan (May 2010 – Dec. 2014)

Research Interests

• Subgrid-scale diffusion properties of GCM dynamical cores
• Advection test cases for dynamical cores
• Energy and enstrophy transports, energy backscatter models
• Implicit Large Eddy Simulation for Two-Dimensional Flow

Contact
Email: james.kent@metoffice.gov.uk

Weiye Yao

Data Scientist, Google (since Spring 2019)

Data Scientist, Bloomberg, New York City (May 2017 – Spring 2019)
Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), Princeton, NJ (Jan. 2015 – April 2017)
Ph.D. (2014), University of Michigan

Research Interests

• Atmospheric dynamics
• Numerical modelling, GCMs
• Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) in the stratosphere
• Sudden Stratospheric Warmings
• Wave-mean flow interactions in the stratosphere
• Impact of gravity wave drag parameterizations on QBO simulations

Contact
Email: weiyeyao@umich.edu

Erik Kostrzewa

Meteorologist/Reporter for FOX17 West Michigan

BSE in Earth System Science and Engineering, University of Michigan

Undergraduate Researcher, University of Michigan (June – Dec. 2014)

Research Interests

• Moist baroclinic waves with simplified physics and re-evaporation

Contact
Email: erik.kostrzewa@fox17online.com   |   FOX17 Webpage

Colin Zarzycki

Assistant Professor, Penn State, Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science (since Jan. 2019)

NCAR Project Scientist (CGD & MMM divisions, Sep. 2016 – Dec. 2018 )
NCAR Advanced Study Program (ASP) Postdoctoral Fellow (Sep. 2014 – Aug. 2016)
Ph.D. (2014), University of Michigan

Research Interests

• Tropical cyclones
• Atmospheric General Circulation Models 
• Multi-scale modeling with NCAR’s Spectral-Element model: variable-resolution computational grids 
• Scale dependencies of physical parameterizations in variable-resolution GCMs

Contact
Email: czarzycki@psu.edu   |   Penn State Webpage

Peter Bosler

Staff Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories (since spring 2016)

John von Neumann Postdoctoral Fellow at Sandia National Laboratories (Aug. 2014 – spring 2016) 
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Michigan (Jun. 2013 – July 2014) 
Ph.D. (May 2013), University of Michigan

Research Interests

• Geophysical fluid dynamics
• Lagrangian particle/panel methods to solve the equations of fluid motion 
• Vortex methods for the shallow water equations on the sphere and 3D incompressible flows
• Algorithms for unstructured mesh generation and remapping. 
• Scientific computation

Contact
Email: pabosle@sandia.gov   |   Sandia Webpage

Paul Ullrich

Professor, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources
University of California, Davis, CA (since 2021) &
Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (since 2023)

Assistant & Associate Professor, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, UC, Davis, CA (2012-2017, 2017-2021)
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Michigan (June 2011 – Aug. 2012) 
Ph.D. (May 2011), University of Michigan

Research Interests

• Climate model dynamical cores for atmospheric simulations
• Test cases for atmospheric models, model intercomparisons
• Numerical methods for hydrodynamic flow problems
• Adaptive mesh refinement (AMR)
• Conservative remapping between grids

Contact
Email: paullrich@ucdavis.edu   |   UC Davis Webpage

Kevin Reed

Professor (since 9/2023) & Associate Dean for Research (since 2021), School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Stony Brook University, NY

Associate Professor, Stony Brook University, NY (2020-2023)
Assistant Professor, Stony Brook University, NY (2015 – 2019) 
NCAR Advanced Study Program (ASP) Postdoctoral Fellow (Sep. 2013 – Dec. 2014) 
AGU Congressional Science Fellow, Washington D.C. (Sep. 2012-2013) 
Ph.D. (2012), University of Michigan

Research Interests

• Modeling of idealized tropical cyclones with atmospheric GCMSs
• Impact of GCM dynamical cores and physical parameterizations on tropical cyclone simulations 
• Impact of climate change on tropical cylone statistics in high-resolution global models 
• Policy impacts of climate change
• Science, technology, and public policy

Contact
Email:kevin.a.reed@stonybrook.edu   |   Stony Brook Webpage

Jared Whitehead

Ph.D. Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics (2011)

Email: whitehead@math.byu.edu

Research Group Member: Summer 2009 – Dec. 2011

Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Utah

Brigham Young University web page: Webpage

James Kessler

M.S. in Atmospheric Science (2015), BSE Earth System Science and Engineering (2014), University of Michigan

Email: james.kessler@noaa.gov

Research Group Member: May 2013 – December 2013

Affiliation: Physical Scientist, NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), Ann Arbor, MI (since 2015)

Web page: NOAA GLERL page

Michael Glotter

BSE in Earth System Science and Engineering (2010), University of Michigan

Email: michaelglotter@gmail.com

Research Group Member: September 2009 – May 2010

Affiliations: since Jan. 2017: Project Leader & Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Chicago, IL
AGU Congressional Science Fellow, Washington, D.C., Sep. 2015 – Sep. 2016
Ph.D. (2015), Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, IL

Kiran Bhaganagar

Email: kiran.bhaganagar@utsa.edu

Research Group Member: 2008 – 2009 (Assistant Research Scientist)

Affiliations: Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas San Antonio

Web page: Webpage

Catalina Oaida

M.S. in Atmospheric Science (2009), BSE in Earth System Science and Engineering (2008), University of Michigan

Email: catalina.oaida@jpl.nasa.gov

Research Group Member: September 2008 – August 2009

Affiliations: Applied Science Systems Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA (since 2018)
Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute of Technology & JPL, Pasadena, CA (2015-2018)
Ph.D. (2014), Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), CA

Ilissa Ocko

BSE in Earth System Science & Engineering (2008), University of Michigan

Email: iocko@edf.org

Research Group Member: September 2007 – April 2008

Affiliations: Senior Climate Scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
New York City (since 2013)
Ph.D. (2013), Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, NJ

Web page: EDF Homepage | Private Homepage

Gus Alaka

BSE in Earth System Science & Engineering (2008), University of Michigan

Email: ghassan.alaka@noaa.gov

Research Group Member: January 2008 – April 2008

Affiliations: IT Specialist at the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory / Hurricane Research Division, Miami, FL (since 12/2018)
Assistant Scientist & Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Miami, Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) Miami, FL (2014-2018)
Ph.D. (2014), Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.