Dr. Ryan Boyles
Director and State Climatologist
244 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-513-2816
Email: ryan_boyles@ncsu.edu [1]
Ryan Boyles is a North Carolina native from Durham. In 1997, he received a B.S. in Meteorology from NC State University. Ryan went on to pursue his graduate degree at NCSU, but postponed its completion to take a position with the State Climate Office of North Carolina. Ryan continued his research on weather and climate in North Carolina, and studied temperature and precipitation trends for his Master of Science degree, which he completed in 2000. Ryan received his PhD in 2006 at NC State University based on research involving development of a radar-based mesoscale precipitation climatology and study of summer rainfall patterns across our state.
As State Climatologist, Ryan is the chief scientist with responsibilities to 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 wants to see the climate office continuously develop science applications to aid other agencies and institutions, and extend such tools and technology to support decision-making. Ryan hopes the efforts of the State Climate Office will improve community understanding of climate and climate-related issues.
Dr. Peter Robinson
NC Climate Program Coordinator
Professor of Geography
302 Saunders Hall
Box 3220, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Telephone: 919-962-3875
Email: pjr@email.unc.edu [2]
Originally from England, Peter Robinson received a B.Sc. in Geography in 1965 from Kings College in London. He later pursued his M. Phil. in Geography at the same institution, in which he researched the depletion of the solar beam over Africa. In 1972, Peter completed his Ph.D. at McMaster University, where he studied longwave radiation exchanges over Lake Ontario. Peter Robinson has been a professor in the Department of Geography at UNC-Chapel Hill since 1971. He was the NC state climatologist from 1976-1980, and from 1980 through 1982, served as the assistant director of the National Climate Program. Peter has been working adjunct with the SCO since 1996, where he has been developing and maintaining connections between the climate office and other colleges and universities. He recently wrote and published a book on North Carolina weather and climate, in association with the SCO and the UNC Press.
Dr. Sethu Raman
Professor of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-7144
Email: sethu_raman@ncsu.edu [3]
Sethu Raman is a native of Chennai, India. In 1958 Sethu graduated with a diploma in civil engineering from the Central Polytechnic, Chennai and worked as a civil engineer and a Lecturer for nine years. In 1966, Sethu received his A.M.I.E. (B.S. degree equivalent) in civil engineering from the Institution of Engineers, India. He received his Master of Civil Engineering (Hydraulics) with honors at the University of Roorkee, India in 1969, where he studied sediment transport. In 1972, Sethu completed his Ph.D. at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. His research was on a study of the urban heat islands. From 1972 through 1982, Sethu was a scientist (meteorologist) in Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York. He joined NCSU as an associate professor in the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences in 1982 and became a professor in 1986. In 1996, Sethu became the State Climatologist of North Carolina, and later the director in 1998 when SCO became a public service center. He has published over 350 scientific papers, 200 of which are in refereed international journals. He stepped down as the State Climatologist and the director of the SCO in 2006. Currently Sethu is a professor in the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at NCSU and continues to collaborate with the SCO staff and students.
Ameenulla Syed
Associate Director / Instrumentation Meteorologist
242 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-1448
Email: asyed@ncsu.edu [4]
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.
Bic Fort
Administrative Assistant
237 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-1667
Email: b_fort@ncsu.edu [5]
Bic was born in New York, NY and attended elementary and secondary schools in Winston-Salem, NC. He is a graduate of Reynolds Highs School in Winston-Salem and graduated from N.C. State University with a B.A. in Business Management. Subsequently, Bic also studied law at North Carolina Central University and Taft Law School. Bic serves as the administrative assistant to the director of the State Climate Office (SCO). His duties include drafting reports, agreements and proposals, as well as daily interaction with SCO staff, the public, state and federal agencies, and media representatives. He is also responsible for all day to day business functions and activities relating to fiscal administration, personnel, purchasing, and assigned grants management, monitoring, and evaluation. Bic reports to the director. Bic supports numerous business functions for SCO including preparation and monitoring of all budgets, fiscal notes, expenditures, invoices, contracts, and project management activities. Bic is knowledgeable of procedures for managing organized research and public service units.
Aaron Sims
Assistant State Climatologist / Environmental Meteorologist
244 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-513-2101
Email: aaron_sims@ncsu.edu [6]
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
240 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-1446
Email: mark_brooks@ncsu.edu [7]
Mark Brooks is from Albemarle, NC. In 2003, he earned a B.S. in Meteorology at NCSU, with a concentration in Marine Sciences. Mark began working for the SCO after graduation, when he developed a digitized database of environmental data called CRONOS. Mark's main roles at the climate office are to develop online products to visualize and disseminate environmental data, maintain the CRONOS database and associated web interfaces, and to collaborate with researchers and user-groups to create decision support tools for crop management. He also markets the SCO's abilities and mission to university faculty, researchers, or any other potential partners. Mark wants to continue focusing on the SCO's core mission of extension by developing innovative, multi-disciplinary applications that can benefit various NC communities. This includes agriculture and other industries where decision making is weather-sensitive. Mark is interested in developing methods to connect climate data with other available data of similar temporal and spatial resolution in order to see and understand the social and economic correlations to weather and climate. Mark is also interested in working with MEAS and the AMS student chapter to help students explore the science and technology of weather and climate outside of the classroom.
Ashley Frazier
Environmental Meteorologist
241 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-515-1440
Email: ashley_frazier@ncsu.edu [8]
Ashley Frazier 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. Currently, Ashley is involved in extending the CRONOS database to include data from various water sites in NC, and calculating percentiles for various parameters such as streamflow, groundwater, and precipitation. She also assists in data retrieval services, as well as various SCO programming needs. In the future, Ashley hopes to continue work with state agencies and institutions in developing science applications, and expand the SCO's outreach to NC communities.
Bryan Aldridge
Systems Developer and Administrator
238 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236
Telephone: 919-513-0244
Email: bealdrid@ncsu.edu [9]
Bryan Aldridge was born in Charlotte, NC and received a bachelor's degree in computer science at NCSU in May 2007. Bryan's current responsibilities at the climate office include investigating and evaluating performance of data storage techniques using Linux clusters. He is also responsible for other Linux Systems Administration tasks including the Linux Virtual Server and maintenance of ingest scripts.
John Ross
Undergraduate Assistant
John Ross was born in Weaverville, NC and is currently pursuing his bachelor's degree at NCSU in meteorology. John's main role at the climate office is to assist in data retrieval services, but he hopes to expand his responsibilities as his experience grows.
John McGuire
Undergraduate Assistant
John was born outside of Chicago and grew up outside of Raleigh. He is currently in his final year pursuing a bachelor's degree in Meteorology, with a minor in Mathematics at NC State. John is evaluating the Peanut Disease advisory model produced by the SCO. He has also worked on a Sea Surface Climatology and did ASCII analysis on the intensity of coastal mid-latitude winter storms in 2005 and 2006.
Adrienne Wootten
Undergraduate Assistant
Adrienne was born in Carmel, NY but grew up in Maryland. She is pursuing a bachelors degree in meteorology with a minor in statistics. Using data from the Great Plains of the United States she is researching the diurnal pattern of thunderstorm convection. Also, using data from the United Arab Emirates, she is studying sea breeze fronts in that region. Finally, using ECONet data and data from NCDENR, she is studying Meteorologically Adjusted Ozone Trends in a joint project between the SCO, NCDENR and NCSU Department of Statistics.
Monica Laureano
Undergraduate Assistant
Originally from Maryland, but now living in Apex, Monica is currently pursuing a major in Meteorology with a minor in Environmental Science from NCSU. She will be working with other undergraduate researchers to evaluate the performance of the WRF modeling system through statistical analysis, real-world case studies, and conducted research. These studies will focus on model analysis and evaluation, examining model strengths and deficiencies, and investigating model improvements and enhancements.
Jennifer Marik
Undergraduate Assistant
Jennifer was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. She transferred from the University of North Carolina at Asheville and is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in Meteorology, with a minor in Environmental Science at North Carolina State University. She will be working to evaluate the performance of the WRF modeling system by examining model strengths and deficiencies, and investigating model improvements and enhancements. These evaluations will be based on statistical analysis, real-world case studies, and conducted research.
Diana Thomas
Undergraduate Assistant
Diana was born in Lillington NC, a small town south of Raleigh. In May 2006, she received a Bachelors of Science in Horticulture alongside minors in Botany and Agribusiness. Diana is currently pursuing a second bachelor's degree in Meteorology with a minor in Environmental Science. Her primary duties at the State Climate Office are to assist with client requests for climate data, develop operational tools, and support the development of agricultural applications. Working with data from the NC CRONOS database, she is creating a real-time application of drought indices for the scientific community as well as the general public. Such drought indices include SPI, PHDI and PDSI.
Stanton Lanham
Undergraduate Assistant
Stanton is from Huntersville, NC. He is currently a senior at NCSU pursuing a bachelors degree in Meteorology with a minor in Physics, and hopes to continue his educational studies in graduate school in the field of climate dynamics. Stanton is working with former SCO director Dr. Sethu Raman on a project regardingconvection
initiation in the Southern Great Plains using the Department of Energy's ARM database.
Sean Heuser
Undergraduate Assistant
Sean was born in Raleigh, NC and received his bachelor's degree in atmospheric sciences, with a minor in mathematics, from UNC-Asheville in May 2005. He is currently pursuing his masters at NC State. Using the results from the IPCC fourth assessment report, Sean is evaluating the skill in each of the models between 1950 and 1998 in terms of temperature and precipitation for North Carolina area.
Dustin Nelson
Undergraduate Assistant
Dustin was born in Greensboro, NC and raised in Reidsville, NC. He is a freshman, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Meteorology at North Carolina State. Dustin's projects include completing data requests and reorganizing directories for radar images of years past.
Monica Overstreet
Undergraduate Assistant
Monica is from Roanoke, Virginia. She is currently a senior at NC State pursuing a B.S. in Meteorology and an Environmental Science minor. Monica is exploring opportunities to use coupled forecast-dispersion models for the development of plume simulations. Her studies include investigating viable options and combinations of observations, numerical forecast models, and dispersion models. In the past, Monica has studied computer model performance with four dimensional data assimilation of ECONet surface observations in order to evaluate simulated forecasts of high-impact weather in North Carolina.
Shannon Futrell
Undergraduate Assistant
Shannon Futrell is from Swansboro, NC. She is currently a freshman at NC State pursuing two bachelor's degrees in Natural Resources and Religious Studies. Shannon has been working to expand the SCO's outreach program by creating content for the educational outreach section of the website, in hopes that the information provided will benefit teachers and students of all ages.