Dr. Ryan Boyles

Director and State Climatologist
135 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-513-2816
Email: ryan_boyles@ncsu.edu

Ryan Boyles is a North Carolina native from Durham with undergraduate and graduate degrees from NC State University. As State Climatologist, Ryan is the chief scientist with responsibilities to develop and promote the Office's climate services for extension, research, and education of applied meteorology and climatology. Ryan supervises staff and students, assists NC state and county agencies, and interacts with a wide range of public and private sector clients to ensure development and delivery of advanced climate science and services. As a core objective for the State Climate Office, Ryan works to increase the exposure of the SCO and NC State University as a resource for weather and climate expertise and information, including expansion of the NC Environment and Climate Observing Network (NC ECONet) and development of weather- and climate-based decision support tools.

Ryan has research and development interests in spatial analysis, Geographic Information Systems, global and regional climate change, drought monitoring, water resource management, sensors and instrumentation, agricultural and forest meteorology, and complex data visualization. Ryan leads the Climate Office to continuously develop science applications to aid other agencies and institutions, and extend such tools and technology to support decision-making. 

Ameenulla Syed

Associate Director / NC ECONet Manager
133 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-1448
Email: asyed@ncsu.edu

Ameenulla Syed was born in India, where he worked for the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore with a Diploma in Sound Engineering for several years. While employed at the Institute, Ameenulla pursued a Bachelors Degree in Electronics Engineering (1981), and later completed his Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering (Instrumentation) from the Indian Institute of Science (1997). Over the years, he has worked on various research projects and participated in national and international field experiments at various levels such as Lead Instrumentation Engineer/ co-Project Investigator. Experiments include 1) Monsoon Experiment (MONEX) 1979, 2) Experiment during Total Solar Eclipse in India 1980, 3) Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment (GALE) 1985-86, 4) Monsoon Trough Atmospheric Boundary Layer Experiment (MONTBLEX) 1990, 5) Vegetation and Surface Energy Balance Experiment (VEBEX) 1998, 6) Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) 1997-99, 7) Bay of Bengal Monsoon Experiment (BOBMEX) 1998-99. Ameenulla has published research papers in peer-reviewed journals and authored scientific reports for different compliance and regulatory agencies.

Ameenulla began working for the SCO to modernize the NC ECONet, which currently consists of about 30 weather stations across the state, and measures parameters like soil temperature, solar radiation, and evapotranspiration, in addition to temperature, precipitation, and winds. Ameenulla serves as the SCO's instrumentation expert. He has developed an auto clean mechanism for precipitation gages, and is working on an all-season, low power precipitation sensor. As manager of the ECONet, he oversees the installation, maintenance, and improvement of weather sensors at the various sites. He also helps in implementing quality assessment and quality control procedures for this data. In the future, Ameenulla wants to expand the ECONet across NC, and continue in-house design and development of weather sensors.

Aaron Sims

Assistant State Climatologist / Environmental Meteorologist
140 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-513-2101
Email: aaron_sims@ncsu.edu

Originally from Raleigh, Aaron Sims received two associate degrees from Wake Tech in 1996. Aaron Sims joined the State Climate Office in 1998 as an undergraduate assistant. After completing a B.S. in Meteorology in 1999, he went on to graduate school and received his master's degree in 2001. Upon graduation, Aaron worked in the private sector for several years when he rejoined the SCO as an environmental meteorologist in November of 2004. Aaron's main roles at the climate office are the design, development, an implementation of the SCO's operational modeling systems. He is working with other staff members and students to continue to develop applications for agriculture and other weather-sensitive industries. He has also helped in the development of quality control procedures and model evaluation tools, and continuously aids our instrumentation meteorologist in ECONet site selection, installation, and maintenance. Aaron is also heavily involved in system administration for the SCO machines. In the future, Aaron wants to improve the SCO's operational modeling capabilities, and bring in new data streams, such as upper air and remote sensing data. Using these new data streams, Aaron plans to develop opportunities with other various agencies and institutions. He also hopes to explore new information techonologies as a way of distributing environmental data.

Mark Brooks

Climate Services Coordinator / Environmental Meteorologist
141 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-1446
Email: mark_brooks@ncsu.edu

Mark Brooks is a North Carolina native, from Albemarle, NC -- the heart of Stanly County. In 2003, he earned a B.S. in Meteorology from NC State, with a concentration in Marine Sciences. He also holds a MBA in Technology Commercialization from NC State. Mark began working at the SCO in 2003, when he developed CRONOS, a digital archive of environmental data. CRONOS now provides access to thousands of environmental observing stations and is used by people throughout the Southeast including all 100 North Carolina counties. Mark's main role at the climate office is to lead the development of new climate information products and services. This includes identifying emerging needs for climate information, analyzing the social and economic sensitivities to climate, translating sensitivities to actionable information, defining new product specifications, delivering seminars to potential collaborators and partners, and expanding the ECONet. Mark assists with formulation, implementation and evaluation of the climate office's programs.

Ashley Hiatt

Environmental Meteorologist
138 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-1440
Email: ashley_hiatt@ncsu.edu

Ashley Hiatt was born in Burlington, NC. In 2005, she received a B.S. in Meteorology at NCSU, with a minor in statistics. Ashley became an employee of the SCO after graduation, and was initially involved in creating statistical evaluation tools of the SCO's operational model. She has also researched climate change in NC for the Global Climate Change Commission, and has been working to expand the CRONOS database to include data from various water sites (streamflow, groundwater, reservoir, etc.) across the Southeast. Ashley's main duties are to maintain the SCO website, develop decision-based support tools for climate-sensitive communities, coordinate educational outreach efforts, and assist in data retrieval services. In the future, Ashley hopes to continue work with state agencies and institutions in developing science applications.

Sean Heuser

Instrumentation Technician
112 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-0411
Email: spheuser@ncsu.edu

Sean Heuser was born in Raleigh, NC. He received his B.S. in Atmospheric Science with a minor in Mathematics from UNC-Asheville in 2005 and his M.S. in Atmospheric Science from NC State in 2010. Sean currently helps install and maintain the NC ECONet stations spread throughout the state, and helps with the implementation of quality assurance and quality control procedures for this data. He is also contributing to the development and analysis of regional climate modeling in North Carolina as well as the Southeastern US.

John McGuire

Environmental Meteorologist / Developer
136 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-0412
Email: jamcguir@ncsu.edu

John was born outside of Chicago and grew up outside of Raleigh. In May 2008, he graduated from NC State with a B.S. in Meteorology, and a minor in mathematics. He was hired full-time for development of meteorological web products for the State Climate Office, Southeast Regional Climate Center, and its users. John is also a part-time graduate student at NC State, pursuing his masters in Atmospheric Science. His graduate research focuses on the feasibility and construction of a high-resolution mesoscale reanalysis of North Carolina using the WRF-VAR model. John hopes to utilize both his work and research to create more interactive and dynamic meteorology products in the future. In the past, John has worked as an undergraduate researcher creating a sea surface climatology, evaluating the peanut disease advisory product with model forecast data, and performing an ASCII analysis on the intensity of coastal mid-latitude winter storms for the 2005 and 2006 seasons.

Heather Dinon

Applied Climatologist
132 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-513-0244
Email: hadinon@ncsu.edu

Heather was born and raised near Boston, MA. In May 2008, she graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in Meteorology and minor in Technical Mathematics from Plymouth State University. Heather received a M.S. in Atmospheric Science from North Carolina State University in May 2011. Her applied climatology graduate research project explored climate variability for crop management in the Southeast US. Currently, Heather leads the State Climate Office’s interactions with the Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation, and Adaptation Project (PINEMAP) which is a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) funded project through an Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) grant. PINEMAP focuses on adaptation and mitigation strategies related to the southern pine forest. Heather is part of the extension team, which is mainly comprised of extension foresters and climatologists. This team will utilize several innovative approaches for disseminating information and new technological advances to forest landowners, industry, policy makers, and youth.

Gregory Deleruyelle

Administrative Support Specialist
117 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-1667
Email: gdeleru@ncsu.edu

Greg grew up in Fairmont, WV and is a 1999 graduate of Appalachian State University. He spent 3 years in Japan working for a Japanese company prior to his employment at NC State, which began in 2007. Greg currently serves as the HR Specialist for both the State Climate Office and The Science House.

Adrienne Wootten

Environmental Meteorologist

Adrienne was born in Carmel, NY but grew up in Maryland. In May 2008, Adrienne graduated from NC State University with a bachelor's degree in Meteorology and a minor in Statistics. In December 2011 she received her Master's degree in Atmospheric Science for her work on statistical downscaling of global climate models to improve seasonal precipitation forecasts in North Carolina. Adrienne has worked on evaluating the Multisensor Precipitation Estimate Data using several statistical analyses. She is currently working on several statistical analyses including implementation of, and improvements to the local seasonal forecasting through downscaling techniques.

Corey Davis

Environmental Meteorologist

Corey graduated from NC State in May 2009 with a major in Meteorology and a minor in Journalism. Born in Kernersville and now living in Raleigh, Corey is a lifelong North Carolina resident who is familiar with the weather and climate of the Tarheel (and Wolfpack!) State. He has worked with the SCO since 2008 on projects including the NC-FIRST severe weather training program, a recreation climatology for the Southeast U.S., and a Local Storm Report database. Corey's work with the SCO will continue in graduate school as he pursues a Master's degree in Meteorology from NC State.

Rebecca Cumbie

Environmental Meteorologist

Rebecca Cumbie is a graduate student at NCSU studying Atmospheric Science; she graduated from NCSU in May 2011 with Bachelor of Science Degrees in Meteorology and Applied Mathematics. Her current work focuses on understanding and measuring drought with the aim of someday being able to forecast drought and drought impacts on a very local scale. Previous work has concentrated on creating a web-based decision guide to be used by NC Tobacco Growers to assess their risk from Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. This website is currently being tested by researchers in the NCSU Entomology Department and several county agents across North Carolina. Rebecca is originally from the town of Newport which is on the coast of North Carolina.

Megan Embrey

Environmental Meteorologist

Megan is from Jamestown, NY, but moved to North Carolina in 2004. She received her B.S. in Meteorology from NC State in May 2011 and is currently pursuing her Master's Degree from the College of Education at NC State. Her current project consists of developing a wind rose plot using R that will be implemented on the cronos database for the State Climate Office. Along with this project, Megan will be continuing to develop and adapt her previous work on the education modules for various audiences, focusing mainly on the K-12 audience. Megan is also working in collaboration with the State Climate Office and The Science House to help out with educational outreach.

Joseph Taylor

Undergraduate Assistant

Joseph Taylor was born in Kenosha, WI and grew up in Davie County, NC. He is currently pursuing two bachelor's degrees in Meteorology and Marine Science and a minor in Mathematics from NC State. Joe has performed many tasks for the SCO, including a precipitation evaluation between tipping bucket rain gauges and precipitation impact sensors deployed at NC ECONet stations. He currently assists with data retrieval services and ECONet tower maintenance, and has begun working on a soil moisture study for NC.

Colin Craig

Undergraduate Assistant

Colin Craig was born in Jacksonville, NC but currently resides in Raleigh. He is a senior pursuing a bachelor's degree of Meteorology with a minor in Computer Programming. Colin is currently working on improving quality control procedures for solar radiation, temperature, and precipitation. He also assists in ECONet tower maintenance and data retrieval services.

Rachel Wrenn

Undergraduate Assistant

Rachel Wrenn was born and raised in Raleigh, NC. She is a senior pursuing a bachelor's degree in Meteorology with a concentration in Marine Science. Rachel is currently working on creating two new web products for the State Climate Office: a PRISM temperature anomaly map and an effective precipitation map, combining evaporation rates and the current MPE precipitation map. She hopes to eventually apply these web products to the entire Southeast Region.

Melissa Mainhart

Undergraduate Assistant

Melissa Mainhart was born in Fairfax, VA and grew up in Kernersville, NC. She is currently a freshman at NC State University pursuing a bachelor's degree in Meteorology. Melissa helps with data retrieval services, and is currently learning PHP and MySQL so that she can assist with web product development in the future.