Alumni News From the Department

We are always interested in hearing from our many accomplished alumni. We have made available for you, at this site, our recent Alumni newsletters (Fall/Winter 2008 Newsletter now available!) and encourage you to catch up on the exciting developments in our dynamic department.

We have pictures from the reception at the AMS Annual Meeting in San Antonio. Take a look!

The Department has a variety of needs that benefit from the generous financial support of our Alumni. We encourage you to consider whether you think you can assist us by visiting the Gift Giving link below.

AOS to welcome two new faculty
The Department is proud to announce the imminent arrival of two new Assistant Professor colleagues; Dr. Larissa Back and Dr. David Turner, both of whom will join our faculty in August 2009. Dr, Back will be coming from a post-doctoral appointment with Prof. Kerry Emanuel at MIT where she has continued her studies of the life cycle, morphology, and climate system impact of tropical deep convection. Dr. Turner is currently a research scientist at CIMSS/SSEC with expertise in ground-based remote sensing of the atmosphere in the far IR. He is a group leader in the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Experiment. Both Dr. Back's and Dr. Turner's observational expertise will complement and extend the Department's inquiry into the climate system on a number of levels. We are thrilled to be welcoming two such outstanding scientists to our already strong faculty.

Karnauskas Earns Ph.D
Dr. Kris Karnauskas (B.S. 2004) recently earned his Ph.D in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Maryland. Kris's thesis "Interannual Variability of SST in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and Central American rainfall" was completed under the guidance of Prof. Antonio Busalacchi. Congradulations, Kris!

Jeff Michalski Joins NWSFO in Seattle
While in Boulder, Colorado at COMET delivering some lectures on winter weather, the Chair ran into Mr. Jeff Michalski (B.S. 1999, M.S. 2002). Jeff has recently been assigned to the NWSFO at Seattle, Washington and reports that he enjoys it very much. The NWS was smart in moving Jeff there in the late spring-he hasn't seen the 6 month cloud season yet.

Alan Leonard's Whirlwind Year
Dr. Alan Leonard (B.S. 1995, Ph.D Florida State University) has had a whirlwind of a yeer. First, in early January 2007 he applied for a program aimed at training the next generation of Federal Government leaders. In June 2007, after numerous written, oral, and all day interviews, he was informed of his selection for the program; the United States Department of Agriculture's Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program. Since then, he has begun official participation in the program and will be, for the next 1.5-2 years, taking courses at America University in Public Policy leadership and implementation as well as participating in several other training and developmental opportunities. This will take place while he retains his normal position working in NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research where he had been serving as the Acting Director until his recent promotion to Deputy Director of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation within that office. In this capacity he will be expected to help lead and staff of roughly 15 people in the development and evaluation of the research programs within NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

http://www.aos.wisc.edu/alumni/giving.htm
(If making on-line donation the fund name and amount needs to be entered in the box provided)