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Home » Staff Profiles

GSL Staff Profiles

Ravan Ahmadov

My research has been focused on the simulation of air pollution from various natural and anthropogenic sources. Currently, I am working on improving fire weather and atmos...

Curtis Alexander

Curtis Alexander (NOAA/OAR/GSL) received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Pennsylvania State University (1999) and the University of Oklahoma (2002, 2010) ...

Randy Barnett

Randy is the GSL IT Operations Manager. Education B.S. Computer Information Systems - Regis University (1994) M.S. Computer Information Systems - Regis University (2000) ...

Leon Benjamin

Specializing in observational weather data processing for instruments from the ground up including meteorological and hydrological surface, aircraft, profiler, and other o...

Stan Benjamin

Stan is a partially retired senior scientist for CIRES at the NOAA Global Systems Lab. Stan grew up in the DC area but also lived in Canada for 2 years during elementary ...

Ligia Bernardet

My work straddles the interface between research and operations in numerical weather prediction. As the Chief of the GSL Earth Prediction Advancement Division, I contribut...

Sudheer Bhimireddy

Sudheer Bhimireddy joined GSL as a Research Scientist with the CIRES at CU Boulder in the Fall of 2023. Prior to joining GSL, Sudheer worked as a Postdoctoral researcher wi...

Lindsay Blank

Lindsay earned her M.S. in Atmospheric Science from North Carolina State University in 2017. That year, she moved to Boulder to begin her professional career at the Nationa...

Rainer Bleck

After writing a (borderline mediocre) Ph.D. thesis on the use of isentropic trajectories to diagnose vertical motion in the extratropical atmosphere, Rainer’s career starte...

Susan Cobb

I lead communications for the NOAA Global Systems Laboratory. Research Interests • Science communications • Aviation weather forecasting • Severe weather forecasting • So...

Jeffrey Duda

I grew up in Iowa and developed a penchant for weather at a young age watching severe weather roll through during the spring and summer (TWC was one of my most-watched ch...

Jason English

I started working in GSL in 2015, where I conducted Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) to evaluate the impacts of targeted dropsondes on winter storm forecasts...

Ken Fenton

Ken Fenton, Physical Scientist, FAA Program Manager Ken Fenton is a Physical Scientist at NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) and works in the Forecast Impact and Quali...

Jenny Fox

I am from Boulder, CO and am living in the same house that I grew up in. I have always loved to travel, and after working as IT support at the Aeronomy Laboratory (the pre...

Guoqing Ge

Guoqing's work focuses on developing and testing modifications in data assimilation for numerical models. He maintained the community version and provided community support...

Penny L Granville

Penny Granville has been GSL’s Administrative Officer since 2005. She manages the administrative staff working on Facility Access, Deemed Exports, and Property accountabil...

Ben Green

Born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, I became interested in meteorology at a very young age. I pursued this interest after high school, obtaining three degrees (B.S....

Georg A Grell

Georg Grell received his Ph.D. as a collaborative dissertation (NCAR and the University of Miami) in 1988. He first worked at NCAR before coming to NOAA - Forecast System...

Mackenzie Grimes

Mackenzie is a Software Engineer working within the Weather Informatics and Decision Support (WIDS) division to build impact-based decision support tools for National Weath...

Shilpi Gupta

Education • M.S. Computer Science, University of Kentucky, 2006 • B.S. Computer Science, University of Kentucky, 2003 • B.S. Art Studio, University of Kentucky, 2003 • Mi...

Jeff Hamilton

Jeff Hamilton Jeff developed a love for meteorology at an early age and was fortunate enough to live in different areas of the country with extreme weather growing up. Se...

Nathan Hardin

Nate is a Research Physical Scientist specializing in helping National Weather Service National Centers and International partners develop and implement new operational t...

Edward Hartnett

I am the author of NetCDF-4, a freely available software library for scientific data, used by NASA, NOAA, the ESA, and climate and meteorology scientists around the world. ...

Craig Hoffman

Craig is currently GSL's webmaster. He has worked as an IT Director, senior software engineer, full-stack developer, a mountaineering guide, a professional photographer, an...

Christina Holt

Christina has spent her career developing and supporting the development of a variety of numerical weather prediction systems. In graduate school, she focused on applying ...

Kirk L Holub

I am an aerospace engineer and computer scientist who served for 11 years as a civilian research scientist supporting multiple national defense projects focused on measurin...

Ming Hu

Ming is a Research Physical Scientist who played a key role in development and implementation of the NOAA operational Rapid Refresh (RAP) and High Resolution Rapid Refresh...

Eric James

I joined GSL (then GSD) within the Assimilation and Verification Innovation Division (AVID; formerly the Assimilation and Modeling Branch AMB) in 2010. Since that time, ...

Isidora Jankov

My research is mainly focused on ensemble-based data assimilation, the design of ensemble forecasting systems, and ensemble statistical post-processing. As a part of resea...

Shannon M Johnston

Bio I am a fan of hockey, outdoors, and everything IT Security! I cut my teeth in the financial industry for 10 years before coming to NOAA. I have extensive experience in...

Darrel Kingfield

Darrel has been with NOAA since 2007 where he has worked at the intersection of National Weather Service (NWS) watch/warning evolution, hazardous weather research and al...

Terra Ladwig

Terra is a Research Physical Scientist focused on data assimilation to improve convective allowing weather prediction for high impact weather events. In particular, she ...

Ruifang Li

Ruifang works mainly on data assimilation and in transferring HRRRv4/RAPv5 into FV3. We install capabilities required for DA in FV3 including latent heat forcing, cloud a...

Tony Liao

Tony is a senior research associate and also a senior member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) education society. Tony currently serves as a Proje...

Sam Liao

Sung Chu Liao (Sam Liao) is a 3D Visualization & Software Developer with experience in System programming and Game development. In addition, he had advanced expertise...

Liaofan Lin

Liaofan joined NOAA/OAR/Global Systems Laboratory as an affiliate of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) in 2019. He is a member of the NOAA ...

Robert C Lipschutz

Bio Bob Lipschutz received his BS (1974) and MS (1980) in Meteorology from Penn State University. He was a Scientific Assistant in the Atmospheric Physics Section at Argonn...

Matt Mahalik

Matt Mahalik is the lead of GSL's Program Management Office (PMO), where he leads the organization, coordination, and overall management of GSL's research portfolio in su...

Jennifer Mahoney

Jennifer Mahoney is the Director of the NOAA’s Global Research Laboratory (GSL). She leads a staff of nearly 200 meteorologists, software engineers, and support staff dedi...

Kevin Manross

Kevin grew up in NW PA where he experienced the 31 May 1985 tornado outbreak that affected eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania and that piqued his interest in severe we...

Ian Mcginnis

Ian develops software for NOAA's Science on a Sphere project and for GSL's verification team. He uses C++, Python, OpenCV, Flask, and other technologies to implement featur...

Laura Melling

Laura Melling Scientific Analyst, CIRES GSL Lead Bio Laura is a Scientific Analyst in the Verification and Assessment Branch of the AVID Division as well as the CIRES GSL ...

William R Moninger

Bill is a semi-retired physicist who works on evaluating the skill of weather prediction models. He is also an expert in automated weather observations by commercial aircra...

Shawn Murdzek

Shawn is a research scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) whose main focus is studying the impact of assimilating observat...

Scott Nahman

Scott graduated from the University of Colorado Naval ROTC program and served aboard the USS Germantown as the Electronics Material Officer and Electronic Warfare Officer....

Daniel Nietfeld

Daniel is the Chief of the Weather Informatics and Decision Support (WIDS) Division at GSL. His background is rooted in integrating science (physical science and social s...

Joseph B Olson

Joe is the primary developer of the boundary layer and surface layer schemes used in the operational Rapid Refresh (RAP) and High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) forecast...

Hilary Peddicord

Hilary came to CU Boulder to study secondary science education after receiving a BS in Zoology and Dance at the University of Wyoming, taking 8 years to travel, ski bum in ...

Missy Petty

Missy Petty serves as the Associate Director for Administration in the Global Systems Laboratory (GSL). In this role, she oversees the administrative and financial function...

Randy Pierce

Randy is a professional software engineer. After graduating with degrees in Physics and engineering he worked for ten years developing advanced hardware and software used...

Greg Pratt

Greg Pratt leads the Data Services Group and works to design and develop prototype weather information delivery systems and applications that help achieve the goal of becom...

Jennifer Raab

CIRA-Boulder Project Specialist

Michael Rabellino

Michael is a software engineering and works on web application development (CIRES). Research Interests • Research and development aimed at improving the weather informat...

Duane Rosenberg

Research Interests: • Fluid turbulence • Geophysical fluid dynamics • Phenomenology • CFD • Algorithm development • HPC Education • Ph.D., Physics, University of North ...

Shadya Sanders

Shadya Sanders Davis is a postdoctoral researcher based at Howard University in Washington DC. Howard is the lead institution of the consortium of universities within NOAA’...

Jordan Schnell

Jordan Schnell - Research Associate Research Interests • Chemical transport modeling and air quality forecasting • Weather-chemistry interactions and feedbacks • High-re...

Evan Sheehan

I am the web developer for Science On a Sphere. I've been doing web development professionally since 2006, with a couple of breaks for grad school and a few stints as a us...

Tanya Smirnova

I am a senior scientist in Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) working for Earth Prediction Advancement Division (EPAD) in Global Systems...

Molly B Smith

Molly grew up in a desert part of California, and became interested in weather after the 1997-1998 El Niño turned her normally dry hometown into a lake. When it was time f...

Jebb Stewart

Jebb Q. Stewart is the lead of the Informatics and Visualization Branch with the NOAA Global System Laboratory in Boulder Colorado. With a unique background in both Mete...

Bonny Strong

I progressed from software engineering into Project and Program Management as I began to see how I could be more effective to ensure the success of software projects in t...

Shan Sun

Shan Sun is a meteorologist at GSL. She came to GSL more than 10 years ago from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, where she had worked for 12 ye...

Xia Sun

Xia Sun works on the Unified Forecast System (UFS) Weather Models and the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP). Xia is interested in topics aiming at improving the for...

Ed Szoke

I was born in the mid 1950s in Worcester, Massachusetts, an interesting area for a variety of weather, and I knew at a young age that I wanted to become a meteorologist. A...

Zoltan Toth

Zoltan Toth is a Senior Scientist at the Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) with NOAA Research. His research has covered topics in atmospheric and related dynamical systems,...

Michael Toy

Michael Toy is a Research Scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Toy began his...

Dave Turner

The focus of my research is to better understand various processes that act upon and within the boundary layer (e.g., convective initiation, turbulent redistribution of ...

Dana Uden

I started out in renewable energy, specifically solar energy resource modeling for a large clean energy developer. I transitioned to verification of meteorological product...

Jeff Vanbuskirk

Jeff VanBuskirk joined the U.S. Army after graduating high school in 1973 and served as an infantry mortar crewman towards the end of the Vietnam War. After several years ...

Cole Vaughn

Cole serves as a social science researcher in the Social & Behavioral Science Branch at NOAA’s Global Systems Lab in Boulder, CO. He has loved weather for as long as he...

Jamie Vickery

Jamie Vickery is a Research Social Scientist and the Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) Branch Chief within the Global Systems Laboratory’s Weather Informatics and Decisi...

Matt Wandishin

Matthew Wandishin leads the Forecast Impact and Quality Assessment Services (FIQAS) Branch, which evaluates aviation weather forecast products for the Federal Aviation Ad...

Hongli Wang

My current work focuses on improving skills of weather and air quality prediction through data assimilation and information blending for FV3 and Community Multi-scale Air...

Stephen Weygandt

Stephen S. Weygandt, is a supervisory meteorologist, who has helped to direct the development of data assimilation systems that provide initial conditions for the Rapid R...

Wei Yu

I am currently working as user support for RDHPCS. I have experience in both software development and scientific research, familiar with numerical models and parallel compu...

Li (Kate) Zhang

My work focuses on the development of complex coupled modeling systems to simulate atmospheric composition, air quality, weather and their interactions. I am one of the p...

Man Zhang

I joined NOAA/GSL, affiliating with CIRES in 2013. Before this appointment, I was a research scientist in ensemble data assimilation group at CSU/CIRA. My research was to a...

Suneng Zhuo

Technical leader for National Weather Service Forecast Office Hazard Services Research Interests Python, cloud, docker, Education • M.S in Computer Science - Universi...