This is just a personal update. I’m wrapping up my work on African easterly waves at NC State and heading out to California to start a new job at Lawrence-Livermore National Lab (LLNL). I’ll be working on a relatively new climate model called ACME for the US Department of Energy. I’m not sure how the recent political environment will affect the funding for climate work at National labs. There seems to be sufficient evidence to be concerned, but I’m not too worried at the moment.

I’ve had a good time at NC State. It was a chance for me to branch out into new territory. My PhD work focused on the MJO and how it works. My main project at NC State is about how the weather in Africa might change in a warmer climate. I definitely learned a lot, and enjoyed exploring the east coast of the US a bit more.

There’s a lot of things about North Caroline that I’ll miss. I got to play music with a couple other great musicians (Atomic Organ Trio). I also discovered the best sandwich place in the world (Na’Mean). I met a lot of great people in the area, mostly through the bottle shop, Tasty Beverage, where my wife worked. I’ll also miss with working with Dr. Anantha Aiyyer, he definitely taught me a lot.

On the other hand, I’m also excited to get back to the west coast where I can be closer to my family. I grew up in Oregon, and there’s something about the landscape out west that makes me want to get back to it. There’s also going to be a ton of great food and music to check out in the bay area.

The work environment will be a nice change as well. I’ve been fairly isolated at the MEAS department where the different research groups don’t communicate that often. During grad school at Colorado State there was no undergraduate program, which allows professors to spend less energy on teaching basic concepts and more time on original research. The group at LLNL is full of top-notch people that are working on a wide array of projects, so I’m hoping there will be endless discussions to learn from.