Congratulations to Daniel Pollak, sophomore, and Michael Hernandez, graduate student, who have been selected as part of the 2009 SOARS Protégé class. 

Also included in the list of 2009 SOARS protégés are Penn State Meteorology alumni Marcus Walter and Alex Gonzalez.  Marcus, currently in graduate school at Cornell University, is in his third year as a SOARS protégé and Alex Gonzalez, currently a graduate student at Colorado State University, has been a protégé for the past three years as well.  Another recent SOARS Protege was graduate student, Luna Rodriguez-Manzanet, who was in the program for four years. 

SOARS, Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science, is an undergraduate-to-graduate bridge program designed to broaden participation in the atmospheric and related sciences. The program is equal parts research internship, learning community, and mentoring program. SOARS offers comprehensive financial support for summer research and graduate school for up to four years.  

2009 Soars Protégé Daniel Pollak

Research Interests: lake-effect snow, snowstorms, weather and societal impacts, international programs. 

This summer Daniel will be in Boulder, CO taking park in the Flash Flood Risk Analysis Project (FFRAP) from May 27th to August 7.  The objective of this project is to improve flash flood warnings and response at small scales and for distributed targets.  He will be analyzing the flood risk related to Low Water Crossings in Missouri and will be using GIS capability to integrate qualitative and quantitative data on both social and physical levels.

 
2009 Soars Protégé Michael Hernandez

Research interests: improvement in the dynamical understanding of the transition phase of hurricanes into extratropical cyclones through data assimilation into the Weather Research and Forecasting model.

Alumni Protégés

2009 Soars Protégé Marcus Walter

Marcus's research interest include atmospheric statistics, extreme climate events, hydrology, and the connection between business and meteorology.

2009 Soars Protégé Alex Gonzalez

Alex's interests in atmospheric science are concentrated in studying theoretical dynamics of the tropical atmosphere related to climate. He would like to tackle the challenges of modeling the Madden-Julian Oscillation, which involves parameterizing convection and understanding the dynamics of equatorial waves.

More about SOARS

More about the 2009 Soars Protégés can be found by visiting:  http://www.soars.ucar.edu/proteges2009.php

More about SOARS can be found by visiting:  http://www.soars.ucar.edu/index.php