Degrees
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Michael has two undergraduate degrees.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics (GPA: 3.97/4.0) in 2010 and a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology (GPA: 4.0/4.0) in 2009.
He also has minors in Mathematics, Communication and Music.
He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Meteorology at Missisippi State University (May 2012). Dr. Jamie Dyer is his research advisor.
Other committee members are Dr. Michael Brown, Dr. Phil Amburn, and Dr. P. Grady Dixon.
His thesis topic is Quantitative Analysis and 3D Visualization of NWP Data Using a Quasi-Geostrophic System of Equations
He is the recipient of an AMS 21st Century Campaign graduate fellowship (2010).
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| Teaching |
Michael has taught several labs and classes in both the physics and meteorology departments at MSU.
He has twice taught the Physical Science I lab (PH 1011).
He is the assessment coordinator for Physical Geography in the Geoscience department (GR 1123).
He has been substitute teacher for Atmospheric Dynamics I (GR 4823/6823).
He has been the lab TA for Principles of GIS (GR 4303). He will be the TA for the Forecasting Severe Local Storms (GR 4842/6842) class in the 2011-2012 accademic year.
Additionally he has been lab coordinator for the Teacher Academy for the Natural Sciences for summer 2010 and 2011.
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| Academic Resume |
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| Research |
Michael has several research interests. His thesis topic involves the evaulation of the Quasi-geostrophic
Omega and Geopotential Tendency equations using the initilized North American Mesoscale (NAM) model fields.
Each term of the equations is calculated at every grid point of the NAM.
The evalated omega is correlated to the omega field results from the NAM.
It is expected that the new model works as well as the NAM in the cold season (where synoptic forcings are prevelant).
The benefit is the removal of noise in the omega model fields of the NAM without loss of accuracy.
This allows for the three dimensional (3D) visualization of omega of model output.
Additionally, he has investigating the 3D patterns of divergence and vorticity in synoptic systems.
Specifically, he is linking features commonly used to deduce vertical motion using quasi-geostrophic, two-dimensional analysis to equivalent features in three-dimensional analysis.
The usefulness of three-dimensional analysis is ease of viewing large amounts of data.
Instead of slicing through the atmosphere using many two-dimensional maps, an equivalent amount of information may be described by one volume.
Another research interest is in the investigation of exoplanet atmospheres for the search of earth-like planets outside our solar system.
Other interests include the improvement of model physics through better emperically determined parameterization, improvement in weather data distribution and the improvement of
three-dimensional visualization techniques.
Previously, Michael was a research assistant for the US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Environmental Lab (2004-2010).
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| Publications |
Included below is the poster for the 2012 AMS conference.
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View the abstract.
View the
pdf.
Michael presented at the National Weather Association Annual Meeting in October 2011.
He presented a poster titled "Visualization of Divergence and Vorticity in Three Dimensions". View the poster
here.
Michael presented at the MSU graduate conference in 2010.
He presented a poster titled "Improved Vorticity Visualization". View the poster
here.
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