I recently made some updates to my Atlantic Tropical Cyclone page. I cleaned up the look a bit, but more importantly I finished creating some visualizations for comparing the seasonal evolution of the environmental conditions in the main development region (MDR).  Continue reading →

This probably one of the driest topics I could write about, but I’ve changed my system a lot over the last year and it has had some notable advantages. I wish someone had told me how cluttered my files were going to get when I started in science! So hopefully this post will get other people thinking more “long term” about their file organization. Continue reading →

I’ve been a Microsoft Word user for a long time, and overall it’s a really great piece of software in many respects. However, there are a few small issues that are starting to bug me more and more as time goes on. Continue reading →

Last week I posted this reading list from a professor on my PhD committee. This week I learned that the atmospheric science department at CSU is offering an experimental course just for reviewing seminal papers! The class is being taught by Dr. Thomas Birner (thanks Thomas!). I wish I could have taken a class like this when I was at CSU. The reading list for the class is pretty thorough and organized, so I thought I’d post it in case anyone wants some more direction with what papers they should be reading. I made an attempt to collect PDF files of the original articles, but I couldn’t find all of them. Luckily I found most of them on a great page maintained by Dr. Geoff Vallis (thanks Geoff!). If anyone has any of the ones I’m missing, I’d appreciate getting a copy. Continue reading →

When I was a first-year graduate student at Colorado State, my dad advised me to get an early start on the seminal literature of the field, but I wasn’t sure where to start. I tried searching online for an atmospheric science “reading list”, but I couldn’t really find anything relevant. So I ended up asking one of my professors, Dave Randall, if he had a list of important papers that he felt every student should read. It took him a day or so for him to sort out what he thought were  the “top” papers over the last 50 years, but he got back to me with this list: Continue reading →

I recently learned about a bill introduced by Lamar Smith (R-Texas) that would cut $300 million out of NASA’s earth science programs. Many people have had strong reactions to this, and see it as a move by climate deniers to silence the science of global warming. They may be right about the motives of the people introducing the bill, but I don’t think it’s that simple. I also don’t think it’s worth getting too upset about it. Continue reading →

Happy Earth day!

Yes, it’s that time of year again, Earth Day! A day devoted to celebrating progress we’ve made protecting the environment. I’m not much of an environmental activist, but as a climate scientist I guess I have a innate fascination with the natural world so Earth day still means something to me. Continue reading →

Always be writing! (i.e. “Publish or perish!”)

This is a good mantra for any scientist to adopt. Publications are how we show the word that we found something. In my last post about my new year’s resolutions I mentioned that I love when a resolution can be quantified, because it’s nice to know whether you are actually meeting the goals that you set for yourself. Continue reading →

Happy New Year!

I really love making resolutions for the new year. The new year’s celebrations can feel over-hyped, and cliche, but I think there’s really something to be said for having ritual “reset” button on parts of your life. Just like Lent, or ritual fasting, new year’s resolutions are a way to step back and find ways to improve yourself, even if they are tiny steps. Continue reading →

I recently and successfully defended my PhD and landed a postdoc Job at the University of Miami working with Prof. Brian Mapes, so I thought it was time to revamp my website! I’ve always had high hopes of more actively maintaining a website that includes blog posts  about my research a couple times a month, as well as occasional posts about more general earth science topics.

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind. My girlfriend, Andrea, and I are about to leave for Germany to do some overdue traveling. After that we’ll head back to Fort Collins, CO for a month before moving out to Miami to start my new postdoc job.