CSU Department of Atmospheric Science

10/07/2026

We have two recipients of the Outstanding Alum award this year, Dr. Jenny Hand and Prof. Hung-Chi Kuo.

Dr. Hand received her M.S. from the department in 1997 and Ph.D from the department in 2001, studying with Prof. Sonia Kreidenweis. Her dissertation was entitled “A New Technique for Obtaining Aerosol Size Distributions with Applications to Estimates of Aerosol Properties”. Subsequent to leaving CSU, Dr. Hand was a postdoctoral fellow in the prestigious NCAR Advanced Study Program from 2001-2003. She returned to CSU to assume a role as a Research Scientist in the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere in 2003, where Dr. Hand is currently a Senior Research Scientist, and has also served as Principal Investigator and Supervisor of the CSU-National Park Service Group. She has been an extensive mentor in the SOARS and CSU REU programs.

Prof. Kuo received his M.S. from the department in 1987 under Prof. Tom Vonder Haar, and Ph.D from the department in 1987, studying with both Profs. Wayne Schubert and Tom Vonder Haar. His dissertation was entitled “Dynamical Modeling of Marine Boundary Layer Convection.” Prof. Kuo then conducted research at the Naval Research Laboratory before joining the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at National Taiwan University (NTU) in the spring of 1990. During his academic career, he has held visiting appointments at UCLA, the Naval Postgraduate School, and Purdue University. He currently holds the position of Chair Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at NTU, which is comparable to CSU’s title of University Distinguished Professor. Prof. Kuo has also served as Provost at NTU, and as Director of the Center for Weather Climate and Disaster Research.

Congratulations to Drs. Hand and Kuo on this richly deserved recognition! We are working on setting a date for a celebration later this semester or early next semester when we will honor them and hear more about their work.

Read more at https://www.atmos.colostate.edu/2026/10/jenny-hand-and-prof-hung-chi-kuo-honored-with-the-2026-outstanding-alum-award/

10/01/2026

Researcher out of the Department of Atmospheric Science is featured on a new documentary about polar seas, how they regulate Earth’s climate and understanding what comes next. Watch the full Ages of Ice: Polar Seas episode on PBS.

The PBS episode covers work on NASA’s ARCSIX project. Multiple CSU researchers contributed to the Arctic Radiation‑Cloud‑Aerosol‑Surface Interaction Experiment. Research Scientist Russell Perkins served as the CSU lead on the project, working with student Camille Mavis, student Kevin Barry, Ryan Patnaude (now at NOAA), University Distinguished Emeritus Professor Sonia Kreidenweis and Paul DeMott (retired). 

Perkins shared:

It has become clear that the Arctic is a very complicated environment that is warming faster than the rest of the globe, but the details of how and why that happens are very complex, and a diverse set of scientists are needed to try to unravel them. Being a part of the ARCSIX team has been an amazing opportunity to work with a lot of specialized scientists to try to put an extensive set of measurements together to see the bigger picture of what is going on, which none of us could get alone. Our piece in this is understanding how particles in the air impact Arctic clouds, which in turn influence how much heat enters and stays trapped in the Arctic.

📷1. Melting fjord (Mavis)
📷2. View from aircraft (Mavis)
📷3. ARCSIX instrument (Barry)
📷4. Arctic flowers (Mavis)
📷5. Researcher on ice sheet (Mavis)

09/29/2026

Research contractor at NASA Jay Tomlin is part of the Salt Lake City Summer Ozone Study with Professor Emily Fischer and a team of researchers from multiple institutions.

09/28/2026

University of Wyoming Research Scientist Anna Robertson managed the Salt Lake City Summer Ozone Study working with Professor Emily Fischer and a team of researchers from multiple institutions. Over the summer they worked with a King Air 350 🛩️

09/27/2026

Ed Sigel, Lead Research Pilot for the University of Wyoming, flew for the Salt Lake City Summer Ozone Study with Professor Emily Fischer and a team of researchers from multiple institutions.

09/23/2026

Scott Presidential Chair of Environmental Science and Engineering, Professor James W. Hurrell received the 2026 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Ambassador Award. The award recognizes outstanding contributions in one or more of the following areas: societal impact, service to the Earth and space community, scientific leadership, and promotion of talent and the career pool.

Hurrell is an internationally recognized climate scientist whose career has combined research on climate variability, climate change and predictability with extensive scientific leadership and service. His research has advanced understanding of large-scale climate variability, particularly the North Atlantic Oscillation, and climate predictability from seasonal to decadal time scales. His work has frequently crossed traditional disciplinary boundaries, connecting atmospheric and climate science with research on ecosystems, Earth system modeling and the societal impacts of climate variability and change.

Throughout his career, Hurrell has helped build and lead major national and international scientific programs and institutions. He has held numerous leadership roles in the World Climate Research Programme, including U.S. and international CLIVAR, and spent more than two decades at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, where his positions included Director of NCAR and Chief Scientist of the Community Earth System Model. He has served extensively with AGU, the American Meteorological Society and the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, most recently chairing a National Academies study on extreme event attribution and extreme event impact attribution. Across these roles, he has emphasized interdisciplinary collaboration, community-building, mentoring and developing scientists, and connecting scientific advances with societal needs.

“I am deeply honored to receive this award,” Hurrell said. “Science is fundamentally a collaborative enterprise, and I have been extraordinarily fortunate throughout my career to have opportunities to work with many talented colleagues and students and to serve our scientific community.”
Hurrell joins a distinguished group of scientists, leaders and communicators recognized by AGU for advancing science. Each honoree reflects AGU's vision for a thriving, sustainable and equitable future supported by scientific discovery, innovation and action.

Honorees will be recognized at AGU’s 2026 Annual Meeting.

Colorado State University Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering | American Geophysical Union (AGU)

09/22/2026

Doctoral student Brandon McGuire is working on the Salt Lake City Summer Ozone Study (SLC SOS) field campaign with Professor Emily Fischer and a team of researchers from multiple institutions. McGuire uses the Aerodyne dual channel Cavity Attenuated Phase Shift (CAPS) Nitrogen Oxides monitor in the research airplane.

09/21/2026

“CSU is at its root a land-grant institution – this project really embodies that,” Larson said. “It embodies the idea of a land-grant institution using land for the benefit of the community, for the benefit of the students, the education.”

For Larson, who researches climate models to understand climate impacts, working in the field offers a tangible connection to some of the same questions he studies academically, including how less snowpack and changing water availability could impact agriculture irrigation.

Read the full story at

CSU students are addressing college student food insecurity by growing thousands of pounds of fresh produce for Rams Against Hunger each year.

09/17/2026

A first-hand field experience from student Lauren Beard:

I traveled to Seoul, South Korea, for three weeks this past August to take part in the Korea Precipitation Observation Program (KPOP), a field campaign led by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). KPOP was a response to a documented rise in short-duration, high-intensity rainfall over the Seoul Metropolitan Area, much of it associated with mesoscale convective systems. These events evolve quickly and on small spatial scales, so they require high-resolution observations from multiple platforms. The campaign network integrated radar, wind lidar, wind profiler, disdrometer, and storm tracker measurements to better understand precipitating systems as they develop over the metropolitan area.

For the first two weeks I was based at Seoul National University and assisted with high-density storm tracker balloon launches. The elevated launch frequency was designed to resolve the rapidly changing thermodynamic and kinematic environment surrounding convective events. I spent my final week of the campaign headquarters site in a research support role, where I verified the previous day’s forecasts against observations.

Thank you to my advisor, Michael Bell, for making this opportunity possible, and to everyone at KMA, Seoul National University, and the KPOP team who made my time in Korea so memorable. The opportunity to work alongside scientists from many institutions and countries was invaluable. International collaboration advances our understanding of weather, and I hope to see more campaigns built on this kind of collaboration.