Mullens research group & info for prospective students

Check back soon for updates on my research program and topics that my graduate and undergraduate students are working on.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

  • Austin Britton (PhD student 2022-) Winter storms in a changing climate.
  • Megan Borowski (Master’s student, 2021-expected graduation S2024) – forecast verification of high resolution simulations of Florida summertime convection under different sea-breeze regimes.
  • Hongsheng Wang (PhD student 2019-expected graduation F2023) – extreme precipitation, atmospheric dynamics, weather systems, climatology: Hongsheng’s work is examining over 70 years of extra-tropical cyclone tracks – seeing how the location and characteristics of these storms are modified by large-scale natural variability across the Pacific-North-American region, and its sub-domains.
  • *Meirah Williamson (Masters student – graduated summer 2021) – heavy precipitation and flooding verification, socioeconomic impacts: Meirah’s research focused on verifying the WPC 1-day Excessive Rainfall outlooks. Specifically, by identifying to what degree damaging events are missed by these outlooks. She examined CONUS between 2016-2020. Her work is currently being prepared for a manuscript. Collaborators: Kevin Ash (UF), Pete Waylen (UF-Emeritus), Michael Erickson (WPC, Uni. Colorado).

*Meirah now works as a GIS specialist for the Illinois Water survey at the University of IL, Urbana Champaign.

UNDERGRADUATES AND GRADUATES ON TEMPORARY PROJECTS

  • Sabrina Cohen (now master’s student at Colo. State) – hurricane Frances in a warmer climate
  • Aidan Burchard Cruz (now PhD student at NCU) – variability of precipitation extremes in New England with Climate Change
  • Surya Sekar (Rice Uni) – climate change projections in streamflow and snowmelt for the Colorado River basin.
  • Michael Rodelo (NASA) – analysis of temperature and precipitation variability over the US – past and future.

GRADUATE STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES – METEOROLOGY, CLIMATOLOGY, CLIMATE SCIENCE

  • Ongoing opportunities – I usually seek to recruit students every year on topics that related to applied meteorology and climatology. Prospective students may feel free to approach me with research ideas. I do not always have money to fund a student, and so it is imperative that students submit their applications by the due date below in order to be considered for departmental funding through a teaching (TA) or research (GRA) assistantship. We offer around 8-10 TAs and 1-2 GRAs each year. I may not unfortunately be able to respond to all requests, and I will usually not consider those in which a student is unfamiliar with my research focus areas and/or has skills or interests that substantially differ from mine.
  • For this position, a degree in meteorology or physical geography is a must, as is experience with computer programming(e.g., R, Python, NCL), and a Linux/UNIX environment. Past experience using machine learning techniques, and evaluating large climate datasets a bonus.
  • Fall 2023: General projects (external funding needed)
    • Spatial extent, patterns, and characteristics of heavy precipitation in past and future climate – specifically looking at variability of precipitation at monthly-seasonal timescales.
    • How well do seasonal climate models represent weather fronts, and what is the implication for the forecasting of extreme precipitation/pluvial periods?
    • Others (see blog)
  • Projects typical have a focus on the United States. However, I encourage proposals for other project ideas from interested students in the areas of meteorology and climatology. Please look at my CV and interests to see if I would be a good fit for your interests.
  • Due date for applications to the department are December 1 each year. If applying for external financial support, due dates are often before this, typically around the start of the year. For students looking at a Fall start for the aforementioned NSF project, applications after the due date are fine.

Student Profile

  • Bachelor’s/Masters degree in meteorology, climatology, or related science
  • Willingness to expand horizons through a geography program
  • Computing experience – preferably in Python, NCL, R. GIS also acceptable.
  • Familiarity with large atmospheric datasets and observations, and experience using them is preferred.
  • Good written and oral communication skills
  • Strong work ethic, shows integrity and self-motivation.

Opportunities for Funding

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES

I am happy to mentor undergraduate students for research projects in weather and climate science. Currently, I do not have funding to compensate students for formal paid internships, however, interested students can inquire regarding the possibility of short-term project work (e.g., 1-2 semesters formal independent study/special topics hours, typically 3 credit hours/semester).

Students are welcome to suggest their own research ideas. Additionally, I have some topics below for which I may be seeking student participation:

  • Case study analysis – extreme flooding event in the United Kingdom or elsewhere (we’d use higher resolution reanalysis datasets to examine the cause and evolution of historical extreme weather)
  • Climatology of weather systems (e.g., heat waves, cutoff low pressure…)
  • Debunking or confirming weather folklore/sayings (e.g., “in [name your state] wait 10 minutes and the weather will change” – can we prove this? How variable is the weather in different places anyway?)

Student Profile

  • Currently enrolled in a degree program at the University of Florida and/or enrolled in courses and in possession of a valid UFID
  • Willingness to participate in formal research/IS hours*
  • Enthusiastic about weather and climate and/or intends to pursue a related career field
  • Upper-division (junior, senior level), and having taken some courses in weather and/or climatology (e.g., MET1010, GEO2242, GEO3250, MET3503…)
  • Basic knowledge of UNIX/Linux systems and/or basic knowledge in scientific computing and data analysis software such as NCL, Python, R, GIS.
  • Good communication skills, and/or a desire to improve those skills

*If a student can enroll in one semester but wishes to conclude the work ad-hoc in a second without enrolling, I am willing to entertain this, however I cannot take on students informally at this time.

Opportunities for Supplementary Funding

  • The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers a scholarship annually for student research. If you wish to work on a project, I strongly recommend, and would advocate, that you also apply for this opportunity. See this link for more information: https://dean.clas.ufl.edu/clas-scholars-program/. Applications are due in February of each year.
  • The University also offers a scholarship for Undergraduate Research. Due date is similar to the CLAS scholarship. You may apply for both opportunities. See this link for more details: https://cur.aa.ufl.edu/university-scholars-program/