Hot Items 2005 Students Participate in Summer Weather Research Programs
Students from colleges and universities around the country are spending their summer working with the nation’s top weather researchers and forecasters from the National Severe Storms Laboratory, other National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration organizations and the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.
Undergraduate students are paired with government and university weather experts for 10 weeks to conduct research on a variety of topics including severe weather, tornadoes, numerical weather prediction models and climatology. Students prepare and present papers reporting the results of their research. Their experience is supplemented by tours, field trips and lectures, all designed to help determine whether they want to pursue a future career in research.
A total of 12 students are participating in the National Weather Center Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program, and one student at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.
The students’ mentors, who are leading scientists in the field of meteorology, are from several of the organizations that make up the Oklahoma Weather Center, including NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, Storm Prediction Center, Warning Decision Training Branch and National Weather Service Forecast Office, as well as University of Oklahoma’s School of Meteorology, Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, and Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms.
REU participant Brandon Miller, an earth and atmospheric sciences major at the Georgia Institute of Technology from Atlanta, Ga., said his experience has been beneficial.
“The REU program has opened my eyes to a possible future in research that I never considered before,” Miller said. “It's a great experience that I could not get anywhere else.”
The REU program is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms. The 12 participants were chosen from almost 100 applicants in the fields of meteorology, atmospheric science, physics, engineering, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, physical geography and other disciplines.
Last year, the National Science Foundation awarded a two-year, $330,000 extra grant to expand REU to help participating students network with past participants and build opportunities in other schools for undergraduates.
Projects supported by the national REU program provide opportunities annually for several thousand undergraduate students to participate in active mathematics, science and engineering research experiences.
7/14/05