A Short Biography

I was born in Akron, OH and spent my early years in a small town in Northeast Ohio named Munroe Falls. It was in this small town that I first developed a fascination for exciting weather events. My mother had purchased a NOAA all hazards weather alert radio when she moved to Ohio, which would sound an alarm every time there was any severe weather in the area. I would always be the first one in the house to run to the radio whenever the alarm sounded, listening keenly to what the radio said. I learned at a very early age all the surrounding counties near my home and would always know where the weather events were happening. When I was in 6th grade, my family moved a few miles away to Silver Lake, OH, and I began attending Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy (where I would remain until high school graduation). In high school, my love for swimming and the outdoors lead me to become a lifeguard at the nearby Crystal Lake, which quickly became my favorite spot to watch thunderstorms rolling in. Whenever severe storms were moving into the area, I would climb up onto the roof of our boathouse and delight in the approaching dark skies. In one case, a tornado warning was in effect for our county, and I was up on the roof smiling and watching the storm while others huddled in the boathouse below me. This proved to be a memorable event for many members of the community.

During high school, I was fortunate enough to take a course in climatology and I often tailored my term papers and other miscellaneous projects towards meteorology related topics whenever possible, and I checked out and read cover to cover every book on weather at the local libraries. I excelled in all subjects, but continuously found my science classes to be the most interesting (not surprising for the son of an Electrical and a Chemical Engineer). From these experiences, I was fortunate enough to have a clear idea of what I wanted to study in college, and chose to pursue a meteorology degree at Ohio University in Athens, OH. Choosing Ohio University was one of the best choices I have ever made. I had a friendly and challenging learning environment, and was surrounded by incredibly supportive faculty members. I was able to, with their guidance, enjoy great success in my studies, and I accredit my professors and mentors with my present opportunities here in Oklahoma. Perhaps the most influential moment in my undergraduate years was being awarded the NOAA Ernest. F. Hollings Scholarship which gave me two years of funding and a summer internship, which I spent in the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, OK. This scholarship lead the way for numerous other scholarships and really was a significant turning point in my career. Up to this point, I had been tailoring my education towards becoming a broadcast meteorologist by working as a weather anchor for WOUB-TV. But my research experience within the NSSL was so encouraging that I decided to pursue a career as a research meteorologist and attend graduate school.

Currently, I am working under Dr. Ming Xue, director of the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms (CAPS) with support from the Department of Defense via a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship. For more information on my current research, check out my research page. During my time in Oklahoma, I hope to expand my very limited (but successful!) storm chasing , and will continually be adding those events to my storm chasing page, so check back often!

For now, this bio is heavily tailored towards my professional interests in meteorology, but I hope to expand it in the future to include my very diverse set of interests and activities!