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Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Mullens research group: info for prospective students

***Please apply by Dec 1 each year****

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Current:

  • Goldie Kpeli (PhD student 2025-) Applied climatology
  • Oluchi Anokwu (PhD student 2025-) Hydrometeorology
  • Austin Britton (PhD student 2022-) Winter storms in a changing climate.

Past: 

  • Megan Borowski (Master’s student, 2021-2024) – forecast verification of high resolution simulations of Florida summertime convection under different sea-breeze regimes.
  • Hongsheng Wang (PhD student 2019-2023) – 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. Collaborators: Kevin Ash (UF), Pete Waylen (UF-Emeritus), Michael Erickson (WPC, Uni. Colorado).

GRADUATE STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES – METEOROLOGY, CLIMATOLOGY, CLIMATE SCIENCE

Prospective PhD students

  • Ongoing opportunities – I usually seek to recruit students 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.
  • General projects:
    • 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 within the discipline tailored to student interests.
  • Projects typically have a focus on the United States. However, I encourage proposals for other project ideas on a global scale from interested students in the areas of meteorology and climatology. Please look at my CV and experience 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

  • 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

MS Student opportunities

  • The Department of Geography takes on a limited number of Master’s students annually. MS degrees are for two years, and usually the only funding route for an MS degree is through faculty grant research funding, or the student bringing their own funding (see funding sources above if you are domestic citizen or permanent resident).

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Our department has a large international cohort and we welcome international students into our program. However, you must be aware of the following limitations:

  • Students will be placed on an F-1 student visa. This is a non-immigrant visa category and does not confer any route to residency (e.g., Green card). They will also be provided with an I-20 document with gives their period of program. Currently, this is 7 years (F1-visa usually 4-5 years in duration). However, the US government is expected to reduce the I20 length of study to four years for PhD, and two for MS, and it will be difficult to extend a degree program beyond this duration.
  • International students cannot work off campus and cannot work more than 20 hourly weekly during the spring and fall semesters.
  • Applicants should show sufficient financial resources to cover their duration of study. A funding offer will count toward this.
  • The post-degree OPT (which permits students to work 1-3 years post degree without sponsorship) is in flux currently, and may not be available in future years. Students should weight the costs and benefits of obtaining a US degree, understanding that they may be required to leave the country within 30-days post degree if unable to secure a job with visa sponsorship.
  • For University guidance – consult the UF International Center.

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/