Protégés 2007





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SOARS & RESESS Protégés of 2007 *********************************************************************************************************************************************************
As of 7/16/07. Meet the Protégés of 2007. On this page the protégés describe their background and research interests. At the moment, all of our returning protégés are listed, as well as some of our new protégés. Check back often as we'll keep posting bios. To learn about the work our protégés will be doing this summer, their contact information, and the mentors they will work with, please visit the mentor-protege partnership page. To read about last year's protégés click here.
	Theresa Aguilar - EOL, NCAR Theresa absolutely loves weather, especially severe weather. She also loves photography and has a collection of severe weather pictures. Currently, Theresa is a junior at Texas Tech University majoring in Geophysics, and even though she lives very, very far away from the ocean she is quite interested in hurricanes. In 2005 she participated in the Wind Science and Engineering NSF internship, during which she assisted with storm chasing and hurricane interceptions. She was part of a team that deployed towers designed to study hurricanes Dennis and Emily. Prior to that Theresa worked on projects involving Rear Flank Downdrafts and dry lines. Theresa was recently accepted into the McNair Scholars Program at Texas Tech and is presently collaborating with her faculty mentor on her research topic. Theresa is working with Tammy Weckwerth in EOL/ NCAR.
	Ian Colon - ISSE, NCAR
	Karen Diaz - NOAA Karen Diaz just graduated from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico with a degree in environmental engineering. She is a third year protégé this summer. In previous summers, she has worked on soil analysis at the Alabama A&M University and in biological wastewater treatment research at the University of Florida. Her first summer in SOARS, Karen worked in the Atmospheric Chemistry Division (ACD) at NCAR. Along with her mentor Andy Weinheimer, she studied the Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange via cross-tropopause mixing in the extratropics. Last summer, Karen worked with Holger Vömel in the Ozone and Water Vapor Group at NOAA measuring ozonesonde background current. This project was presented at the 2006 AGU Conference. Her research interests include ozone layer depletion, air pollution, and air quality. Upon completion of her education Karen would like to specialize in air pollution control and work in academia as a professor. She enjoys star gazing, astronomy, going to coffee shops, canoeing, and going to the movies.
	Emanuelle Feliciano Bonilla - RESESS Emanuelle A. Feliciano Bonilla has lived in Añasco, Puerto Rico his whole life. He is currently in his third year at the University of Puerto Rico, at Mayaguez where he is majoring in Geology. Emanuelle wants to continue studying geology with a concentration in geophysics and seismology. This will be his first summer with RESESS. In the past month Puerto Rico has seen a rise in seismic activity due to its position on the margin of the North American plate and the Caribbean plate, a fact that particularly interests Emanuelle. The Seismic Network of Puerto Rico, which is the largest seismic network and the most efficient network in all the Caribbean, is near the Geology building at his university; Emanuelle plans to work there as soon as his RESESS internship finishes in August of this year. This has been one of his dreams every since he was a little kid. Emanuelle also dreams of working at NASA and NOAA. His hobbies include playing basketball and tennis, going to the movies, and going to the beach. The thing that he likes the most is Puerto Rican food.
	Alisha Fernandez - NOAA Alisha recently graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a major in mathematics. She will be a third year protégé this summer. In 2005, Alisha worked with Lawrence Buja from the Climate & Global Dynamics Division (CGD) and Jennifer Oxelson from Unidata on a project management component that facilitated the construction of a metadata database to store and organize metadata from the Community Climate System Model (CCSM). Alisha has presented her research, titled Enhancing access to climate model metadata via a web-accessible database, at SACNAS and at AMS. Her research interests include space weather, mesoscale meteorology and education in science and mathematics. Alisha plans on attending graduate school in the fall of 2007 to pursue these research interests and find her passion. She loves the outdoors, astronomy and Latina literature, and as a Washingtonian loves everything about her home state: the rain, the hippie-vibe and the ocean.
	Shanna-Shaye Forbes - Unidata, UOP Shanna graduates in May from The University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and this summer she will be a fourth year protégé. In the fall she will begin graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. Shanna is originally from St. Andrew, Jamaica, but has lived in Texas since 1996. This summer Shanna will be continuing her work from summer 2006 in Unidata on netCDF with Russ Rew and Ed Hartnett. In 2005 Shanna worked with Anne Wilson in Unidata creating a Decoder Wrapper and the previous summer she worked with Chris Webster, Mike Daniels, and Dave Rogers at Jeffco on a Synthetic Data Injector. Her interests include systems software, software development, and embedded systems. Shanna has had the opportunity to present her SOARS projects at AMS and SACNAS conferences. In her free time, Shanna enjoys reading sci fi and mystery novels, as well as watching movies.
	Katherine Fornash - RESESS Katherine F. Fornash, a resident of Hialeah, Florida, is currently a sophomore at Yale University pursuing a major in Geology and Geophysics. Last summer she worked in a geomicrobiology lab on the development of oxygen isotope ratios in phosphate as a biomarker for life in hydrothermal vent settings. Her current research interests include the use of isotopes to answer paleogeological and paleoclimatological questions, and more recently, cave geology. Katherine enjoys reading, writing, running, dancing, laughing, interior decorating and anything that generally pairs good food with good people. In the future, she would like to attend graduate school and work with an organization that forecasts and prepares communities for disaster events.
	Miriam E. Garcia - RESESS Miriam E. Garcia is a senior at the University of Texas at El Paso. She is majoring in geophysics with a double minor in physics and mathematics. This will be her second year participating in the RESESS program. Last year she worked with doctoral student, Walter Szeliga, and Dr. Roger Bilham modeling data from a 1931 earthquake in western Pakistan. She also helped collect data from creepmeters placed along faults throughout the San Andreas and Hayward faults in California. Her research was presented at the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans Society (SACNAS) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conferences in 2006. Miriam plans to go to graduate school and become a volcanologist. Her ultimate goal is to conduct research for a government hazards program to educate people about potential volcanic dangers. Besides research, Miriam enjoys spending time with family, belly dancing, running, and hiking.
	Douglas Gavin - COMET, UOP Douglas J. Gavin is a senior at Jackson State University majoring in Meteorology. He is a second year protégé this summer and is from Mobile, AL. Last summer he worked with Dr. Leslie Hartten and observed readings of sea surface temperatures west of the Galápagos Islands. He enjoys jogging, singing, hanging out with friends, and making people laugh. His goals in life are to have a blessed family, and be a blessing to others.
	Alex Gonzalez - CGD, NCAR Alex is currently a junior at Penn State University majoring in Meteorology, with a concentration in Atmospheric Science, and minors in Mathematics and Spanish. His research interests include dynamic meteorology, tropical cyclones, and the chaos theory. His past research experiences include analyzing the history of pre-satellite tropical cyclone forecasting in the Caribbean. In this research, he translated and examined Benito Viñes’ findings about Caribbean hurricanes in the late 1800s. After graduating, he would like to attend graduate school, and after the completion of that he would like to conduct research in the government sector. In his spare time Alex enjoys exercising at the gym, playing basketball, singing, playing the guitar, dancing hip hop, performing theatre, and researching new technology. He also enjoys traveling and experiencing new cultures, as he just returned from Madrid, Spain, where he studied during the spring 2007 semester.
	Michael Kevin Hernandez - COSMIC, UOP Michael is currently a Senior at the University of Miami, where he is majoring in Meteorology and Applied Mathematics. This will be his second summer with SOARS. Last summer he worked on a research project entitled "Comparison of CHAMP Radio Occultations with Global Model Forecasts: 2005 Hurricane Season" under the supervision of Dr. Ying-Hwa (Bill) Kuo, Douglas Hunt, Wendy Abshire, and Jeff Weber. He presented this project at AMS and SACNAS where he won a Recognition for Outstanding Student Poster in Geosciences award. At the moment, Michael is conducting research entitled " Hurricane Katrina Reanalysis over South Florida" under the supervision of Dr. S. Majumdar, Dr. R. Goodman, and Dr. B. Mapes. Michael plans to attend graduate school at Penn State next January and plans to work on his doctoral dissertation dealing with hurricanes. He enjoys tutoring in the Math Lab, dancing, and cooking; and he also loves to draw and learn new things.
	Cynthia Hyland - RESESS Cynthia Hyland is a junior at Humboldt State University (HSU) in Arcata, CA. She recently returned to school to complete her undergraduate degree in math and physics. Prior to this she worked as a computer graphic artist in diverse fields, such as aerospace and feature films. One of her many responsibilities during this time was the research and development of multimedia as a training tool for aerospace mechanics. Her work experiences fueled her interest in the sciences and ultimately influenced her choice of major. Cynthia was born and raised in rural Washington State, but she's also lived in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Currently she lives near the Mendocino Triple Junction in Northern California which is the conjunction if the Gorda, North American, and Pacific plates. These locations have stimulated Cynthia’s interest in earthquakes and volcanoes. Due to her experience with computers and her fascination with Earth science, she is looking forward to researching plate movements and seismic activity. Cynthia enjoys traveling, listening to music, hiking, photography, and exploring her surroundings. She's also a member of the HSU Student Drum Group which participates in Native American cultural events.
	McArthur Jones Jr. - NOAA “Mack,” as most people call him, is currently a sophomore attending Millersville University on a PA Board of Governor’s Scholarship. His major is Meteorology and he has minors in Athletic Coaching and Mathematics. He is also involved in the University AMS and is currently a member of the Millersville Men’s Soccer Team. Unfortunately, this past fall Mack suffered a career ending knee injury; while this was his last year as a player, he will be an assistant coach for the Marauders in the upcoming 2007 season. Mack was born and raised in Harrisburg, PA. As for his hobbies, he is a huge fan of all sports. He also loves learning anything having to do with mathematics and science, especially weather. In addition, he enjoys spending time with his friends. His research background has been limited to writing collegiate level research papers on topics such as, the effects of El Nino and La Nina and Affirmative Action. Finally, his two “dream” jobs would be to work at either NASA or NOAA.
	Nicole Ngo - RAL, NCAR Nicole Ngo is a third-year protégé who graduated in 2006 from the University of California, Irvine with a B.A. in Economics and B.S. in Earth and Environmental Science. This Southern California native took a year off and traveled to Singapore and other parts of South East Asia for two months to visit family, enjoy the sun, and eat delicious food. She will begin graduate school in the fall for her Ph.D., focusing on development and environmental economics. Using her dual degree and interdisciplinary background, she wants to use economics as a tool to more effectively resolve some of the important environmental issues. Her previous research includes studying the economic and environmental impacts of harmful algal blooms off the coast of Massachusetts while at NCAR, examining the relationship between US aquaculture and employment while at the Marine Policy Center at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and her senior thesis in which she analyzed the “urban metabolism” (i.e. viewing an urban area as an ecosystem by measuring important resource inputs and outputs) of Los Angeles County. Back in California, she teaches tennis, hangs out with her dog, and likes to read.
	Ezer Patlan - RESESS Ezer is currently a senior at the University of Texas at El Paso where he is majoring in Geophysics with a double minor in physics and mathematics. He was born and raised in Chihuahua, Mexico and moved to El Paso as a teenager. This will be his first year in the RESESS program. Ezer is currently working in a National Science Foundation fellowship program called Pathways conducting research related to a study of a deep earthquake in the subduction zone of the northern South Island of New Zealand. Ezer has received awards from the Alpha Phi Omega Engineering and Geology Social Fraternity and the Reese Rowling Foundation. In the future, he plans attain a PhD and work in academia with the intent of discovering methods to further our understanding of seismology and volcanology. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends.
	Lumari Pardo - CU/INSTAAR Lumari Pardo is a young girl from the island of Puerto Rico. Everything related to weather fascinates her, specifically thunderstorms and tornadoes. She is currently majoring in pure mathematics at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. Her goals are to become meteorologist and pursue her graduate studies in the United States. Lumari has been part of the Upward Bound Math & Science program for several years; she was a student with UB all four years of high school and now she tutors for them. At UB Math & Science Lumari helped to develop some experiments and was a tourist guide at “Bosque del Pueblo” in Adjuntas, PR. These programs, besides teaching science and math, taught Lumari how to manage stress and how to organize her time. In addition to doing her homework, Lumari is a taekwondo athlete. She practices hard every day, sometimes twice a day. Taekwondo is her passion, and she has been practicing it since her childhood. She has been part of the interamerican university taekwondo team for two years, and has also competed outside and inside of Puerto Rico with her lifelong team “los Gallitos Olimpicos” from San Germán.
	Luna Rodriguez - RAL, NCAR Luna is a first year graduate student in meteorology at the Penn State University. She is a third year protégé this summer. Her research interests involve model analysis for mesoscale meteorology. Upon completion of her education she plans to work in Academia. In her free time Luna enjoys listening to music with her Chihuahua Nova Lulee, extreme activities (skydiving, white water rafting), and hopes to go storm chasing this summer.
	ZiZi Searles - CGD/TIIMES, NCAR Zi Zi is a Geology Major at Sonoma State University in Northern California. In her spare time she enjoys a wide range of outdoor activities. Some activities she particularly enjoys are hiking, rock-climbing, swimming and yoga. Besides outdoor fun ZiZi loves reading, going to concerts, hanging out with her friends, and dancing. She is also a big fan of the Daily Show and Colbert Report. ZiZi has lots of experience with field geology. In the past two years she has studied in numerous field environments throughout the Southwest and California. She has visited three geothermal power plants, 2 oilfields, 1 platform and lots of mines. ZiZi seeks a career that helps communities balance human needs against Nature’s delicate equilibrium.
	Armand Silva - RAL, NCAR Armand is a senior majoring in Meteorology at Penn State. He was born near Washington, D.C. in Falls Church, VA and currently lives in Arlington, TX. He also spent four years abroad living in France. He is a second-year protégé this summer. In 2006, Armand worked with Dr. Tom Warner in the Research Applications Laboratory (RAL) on analyzing wind climate data in White Sands Missile Range. Armand’s current meteorological interests include global climate systems, synoptic-scale meteorology, and mesoscale surface-atmosphere interactions. He plans to attend graduate school to study Geography and then work for the government or private sector. Armand has had a particular interest in maps and geography his entire life. There is nothing that surpasses his strong passion for traveling. He loves exploring new places and always welcomes changing environments. Armand also enjoys playing tennis, listening to music, and eating international foods.
	Lennox Thompson - RESESS Lennox is a member of the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program at Coppin State University where he is a senior majoring in Math & Computer Science. In his leisure time Lennox enjoys biking, reading, & going to the movies. This will be his second year as a RESESS protégé. Lennox plans to pursue a Master’s degree in Fire Protection Engineering and then work for the government specializing in protection design of detection and suppression systems. Alternatively, he would like to specialize in fire modeling in order to create a computer model of the rate at which a fire can spread in a structural building.
	Kimberly Trent - MMM, NCAR Kimberly Trent will graduate in May from Yale University with a major in Applied Physics. This will be her second summer as a SOARS protégé. Last summer she worked with Warren M. Washington from the Climate & Global Dynamics Division (CGD). Using Hurricane Katrina as a case study, they coupled the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with an isolated column ocean model and ran simulations to determine how projected ocean temperatures (due to global warming) in 2100 might impact hurricane development. Her research interests include hurricane modeling, global warming, terraforming, and the development of cleaner spacecraft propulsion systems. Kimberly plans on earning a PhD in Astronautical Engineering with a focus in electro-magnetic propulsion, and to one day work for NASA.
	Cecille M. Villanueva - COSMIC, UOP Cecille is in her fifth year studying Physics and Chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. She has lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico her whole life. Given that Puerto Rico is vulnerable to hurricanes, Cecille has experienced their effects firsthand; as a result she is fascinated with weather, especially tropical and extreme weather. In addition, as long as she can remember, she has been fascinated by the beautiful displays of the aurora borealis. Last summer, she conducted research through the SMART program on the Auroral occurrences in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Now she’s researching the optical, physical, and chemical properties of ground-base aerosols and comparing with high altitude aerosols using LIDAR results. Cecille’s hobbies include playing volleyball, softball, tennis or any kind of sport, going to the beach, reading books, traveling and visiting new places when she can. She also likes to go to the movies, listen to music (she loves music), dance, and spend time with my friends.
	Marcus Waldman - CISL, NCAR Marcus Waldman is a junior at the University of Colorado at Boulder studying Applied Mathematics with an emphasis in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. He is also a research affiliate for the National Science Foundation’s MCTP (Mentoring through Critical Transition Points) program. The goal of his research project is to develop a mathematical model of a rotating convection experiment that was developed to model global circulation. He plans on pursuing an advanced degree and making a career of meteorology, atmospheric sciences, or climatology. Marcus grew up in a suburb just south of Denver and was privileged to enjoy all of the amenities of the Rocky Mountains, especially skiing. His first time skiing was when he was four years old. In the summers, he enjoys cycling around the Boulder Valley. Every July he participates in the MS-150, a weekend-long 150-mile bike ride that benefits the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
	Marcus Walter - ISSE, NCAR Marcus was born and raised in Maywood, IL, a western suburb of Chicago. He went to Proviso East High in Maywood where he was a three sport athlete (Football, Wrestling, and Track) and an honors student. Marcus is currently a junior and a Schreyer Honors Scholar at Penn State University majoring in meteorology with a focus in weather forecasting and communication. He has had an interest in meteorology since he was around twelve. At present, Marcus is researching the formation of ground-level ozone, which is hazardous to people, plants, and animals who breathe it. He is also interested in learning more about Weather Risk Management, which is what he wants to study in grad school. In his spare time Marcus likes to go to parties, hang out with friends, read books (he loves the book “Angels and Demons”), and even salsa dance (“I Love Salsa” by N’Klabe is his favorite salsa song).
	Christopher Williams - ACD, NCAR Christopher is a junior at Georgia Institute of Technology majoring in Earth & Atmospheric Sciences. His emphasis is in meteorology and he is particularly interested in researching tropical meteorology. Earlier in his college career, he participated in the Servant Leadership Program at Columbus State University and was able to volunteer in the community, mentor students, and be mentored himself. Consequently, he has a real appreciation for mentoring because of the positive changes that can result in ones’ life. Christopher enjoys playing basketball, camera work, and spending free time with family. He is the middle child out of five children. He was born in Germany and raised most of his life in Baxley, Georgia. Christopher would like to travel around the world and become a God fearing husband and father.
	Anastasia Yanchilina - ACD, NCAR Anastasia is currently a sophomore at Creighton University with a major in Atmospheric Science and a minor in Mathematics. Her prior research experience includes participating in an REU program at University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she conducted research on Snow Parameter caused uncertainty of Predicted Snow Metamorphic Processes. She is currently working on understanding the correlation between the decadal changes in sea surface temperatures and the precipitation in the Western Africa climatic regions. Her goal for the future is to study paleoclimate and anything else that has to do with climate change as well as its affect on past cultures and civilizations. In her free time, Anastasia tries to be outside as much as possible, be it biking, rollerblading, or swimming in all types of weather. She also enjoys dance and art. Anastasia's family is from Moscow, Russia but they now live in Chicago, Illinois.

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The SOARS program is administered by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). Program funding is provided by: NSF, CIRES, NOAA, and UCAR/NCAR/UOP.