About Me

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma (OU) and plan to complete my degree in the spring of 2027. I have been at OU since 2016, having previously earned a B.S. in Meteorology (2020), a B.A. in Mathematics (2020) with a minor in History, and an M.S. in Meteorology (2023). I have worked with Dr. Steven Cavallo for most of my time at OU, exploring tropopause polar vortices (TPVs) and their role in the climate system. Although they are found high in the atmosphere and are largely invisible, TPVs have major impacts on weather at the surface, even in the midlatitudes. In the Arctic, TPVs help to form and strengthen Arctic cyclones, which in turn can impact sea ice distributions, while, in the US, they may help initiate tornado outbreaks! As research into TPVs is relatively new, there are still plenty of open questions waiting to be answered. You can read more about some of my past projects in the research section.

Throughout my academic career, I have worked extensively with model output, reanalysis data, and in-situ observations, using software packages like Python, shell scripting languages, and web development tools (check out my real-time TPV diagnostics for example). I also have experience running both weather and climate models (MPAS and CESM2), cycling data assimilation systems (DART), and conducting statistical analyses of large datasets. Outside of work, I enjoy golfing, exploring national parks (I've made it to just under half of them so far!), and baking far more often than I probably should.