scientist profile

Those not familiar with the Great Lakes freshwater coasts may wonder how a seemingly endless supply of mussels could possibly be a bad thing. After all, saltwater mussels considered a delicacy by many, is a common item found on your favorite restaurant’s menu. Unfortunately, the freshwater dreissenid mussel is not only an unwelcomed item on the menu, but also in North America’s freshwater waterways. These invasive mussels have very few natural predators to limit their numbers, so their populations continue to grow and spread, wreaking havoc on the Great Lakes food web.

Since the 1960s scientists have used the so-called "butterfly effect" to explain why we struggle to predict such extreme events with more than two weeks of advanced notice. But Elizabeth Barnes, Assistant Professor at Colorado State University, is pushing the envelope. Barnes likes making complex things simple, and with her team is turning the theory about Earth’s chaotic weather patterns on its head.

From the front lawn of his childhood home in the Chicago suburbs, Eric Maloney, Professor at Colorado State University and NOAA-funded scientist, experienced extreme weather ranging from blizzards to severe thunderstorms. As a kid, he even videotaped a tornado. Maloney has been fascinated with the weather ever since.

Dr. Meiyun Lin is a Research  Scholar at NOAA and Princeton University’s Cooperative Institute for Climate Science. Dr. Lin’s research seeks to advance knowledge on the interactions of air quality with weather and climate to inform public policy.

Texas State Climatologist and NOAA-funded scientist, John Nielsen-Gammon, has helped the state of Texas make the best possible use of weather and climate information for 17 years. “I became a climatologist before I actually did any climatology work,” he said. Texas State Climatologist and NOAA-funded scientist, John Nielsen-Gammon, has helped the state of Texas make the best possible use of weather and climate information for 17 years. “I became a climatologist before I actually did any climatology work,” he said.

Growing up on a farm in Minnesota, Jason Otkin felt that the weather controlled everything in his life. In the middle of “farm country,” Otkin’s parents made a living herding cattle and growing corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and wheat. The farm was home to sandy ground that tended to dry up quickly in the summer after some hot and dry weather, causing crop conditions to rapidly deteriorate.

Ocean chemistry is changing faster right now than at any time over the past 50 million years. “We are fundamentally altering marine ecosystems,” says NOAA oceanographer Simone Alin, Ph.D. With her colleagues at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), Alin is responsible for monitoring the rapidly changing chemistry of seawater and understanding the ramifications for the world’s oceans, particularly the highly productive, fisheries-rich coastal waters off the west coast of North America. 

NOAA/CIRES scientist Gijs de Boer wins Presidential award for using science drones to understand climate change in the Arctic. “I love being part of the UAV revolution,” says de Boer.

One versatile model can track airborne dust from the Sahara Desert, forecast smoke dispersal from wildfires, and predict the spread of radiation through the atmosphere from nuclear accidents. Dr. Ariel Stein and his NOAA colleagues maintain and continually improve this model.