Employee spotlight: Bob Rabin

"Head in the clouds" was the comment on Bob Rabin's report card from a grade school teacher in Evanston, IL. From the very beginning, Bob was preoccupied with the weather. He watched the clouds, observed Illinois storms in both winter and summer, studied the sky with a friend, and was a co-op weather observer for a local television station.

There was no question about what profession to pursue, and Bob assumed he would go into forecasting. But his experiences in college pulled him away from forecasting into research. Bob spent two years at Northeastern Illinois University before transferring to McGill University in Montreal, Quebec for his B.Sci. and M.Sci. in meteorology. After his graduate work, Bob decided to take a break and travel by initiating unique training experiences in Germany and Israel before earning his Ph.D. at University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.

Bob first worked at NSSL as a college student during one of his summer breaks and came back later as a permanent employee in 1978. Now NSSL shares Bob with the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS not CIMMS!) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently he spends about three weeks in Oklahoma and one week in Wisconsin per month. Bob says it's good for him to work in two places, and he finds the arrangement "scientifically stimulating."

Bob's main area of work is in satellite meteorology. He has identified an influence of agricultural patterns (such as the winter wheat belt in Oklahoma and deforestation in Brazil) on cumulus cloud formation. Current projects include using satellite observations to determine: the detailed wind flow near the tops of developing thunderstorm systems, stability and moisture and their link to storms, and the water vapor content of air masses and surface winds in fog forecasting off the California coast. He hopes to be involved in a new project to detect storms in the western U. S. that are conducive to starting fires from lightning. He also enjoys training other meteorologists in the use of radar and satellite data.

Bob says it is a major part of his personality to be "set in his ways." He says, "If I don't make a real effort to keep active, it's easy to wind down and stay where I'm at." Bob has developed many recreational interests including cross-country skiing (a passion he picked up while he was at McGill), basketball, yoga (he teaches a class at the YMCA here in Norman), and biking. Many of us here at NSSL and in Madison see Bob biking to work, regardless of the weather. He says it's easier to bike than find parking!