Purdue Climate Change Research Center

Welcome 2012 PCCRC Fellows!

Mr. Casey Beel (EAPS)

Casey Beel is a 2012 PCCRC Fellow. Casey hails from New Zealand, earning his BSc and MSc in Geography (specifically, sediment transfer processes) from Otago University. Before arriving at Purdue, he worked as a hydrological technician for the West Coast Regional Council, New Zealand. Here, he was responsible for the installation of 10 telemetered hydrometeorological sites and the maintenance of over 20 flood warning sites. Casey is working with advisor Prof. Nathaniel Lifton in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

 

Mr. Wendell Walters (EAPS)

Wendel l Walters joined the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, & Planetary Sciences in the fall of 2012 and is a 2012 PCCRC Fellow. This past May, he graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a B.S. in Chemistry and received the American Institute of Chemists’ award. His undergraduate research under Dr. Amy Mullin focused on studying the dynamics of inelastic collisions of highly excited molecules. A paper on this work entitled, "Using a frequency stabilized CW mid-IR OPO for high resolution transient IR absorption spectroscopy," will soon be submitted for publication in Optics Express. Wendell is working with advisor Prof. Greg Michalski in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, & Planetary Sciences.

 

Mr. Linyuan Shang  (EAPS)

Linyuan Shang joined the department of EAPS in the fall of 2011. He came to us from China earring his BS in Wuhan University and his MS in Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In his first year at Purdue, he is taking courses in Atmospheric Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry. He is currently working with Qianlai Zhuang’s group on a project that focuses on terrestrial biogeochemistry between atmosphere and biosphere.

 

Mr. Ruoyu Wang (ABE)   

Ruoyu Wang joined the department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering in the fall of 2011. He came to us from China earring his BS in Environmental Engineering from Beijing University of Chemical Technology and his MS in Forestry (Forest Hydrology) from Auburn University, Alabama. In his first year at Purdue, he is taking courses in Environmental Informatics, Eco-hydrology and Soil Genesis, classification and survey. Ruoyu is currently working on a DOE project that focuses on improvement of plant growth model, especially the extra water stress on plants. His research also estimates how future climate change will affect the crop/bio-fuel crop productions. Ruoyu is working with Keith Cherkauer’s group with Laura Bowling serving as, co-advisor.

 

Fellow Updates

Mr. Paul Schmid (EAPS)

Paul Schmid joined the department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the Fall of 2010. He had previously earned a BS in Meteorology and Mathematics from Valparaiso University and a MS in Atmospheric Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville focusing on global climate change and climate statistics.

He currently works under Dr. Dev Niyogi, in conjunction with the Indiana State Climate Office. His current research includes modeling land surface interaction with thunderstorms, specifically in urban areas and statistical and model representation of surface-subsurface-atmospheric flux coupling.

Relevant publications: Schmid, P., and D. Niyogi, 2011: A Method for estimating Planetary Boundary Layer Heights and its Application over the ARM SGP Site, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, in review.

 

Mr. Clay Davis (AGEC)    

Clay Davis joined the department of Agriculture Economics in the fall of 2009.  In his first year he took courses in both the departments of Economics and Agricultural Economics and included courses in Microeconomic Theory, Mathematical Programming, Econometrics and Dynamics.  His current work focuses on the impacts of wind generation on other generation resource needs and their effects on electricity markets.  He is also looking into the potential benefits of including energy storage with intermittent generation resources, such as wind generation.  Clay has presented to Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission staff members.  This last July, he presented a paper at the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association annual meeting in Pittsburgh.  Clay is working with Paul Preckel in the department of Agriculture Economics.

Ms. Fan Wang (EAPS)

Fan Wang joined the department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences in the fall of 2009. In her first year at Purdue, she took courses of Stable Isotope forensics, Atmospheric Chemistry and statistics 512. She is currently working on the origin and evolution of nitrate deposits in the hyper-arid regions. She has conducted field work in the Atacama Desert, Chile (Dec. 27-Jan 18) and Kumtag Desert, China (Mar 12-Apri 9). During 2010 Goldschmidt conference, she gave a poster presentation: ”Role of water availability in source partitioning for desert nitrate: New evidence from mass-independent oxygen isotopic compositions”. She is working with Greg Michalski in the department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences.

Ms.Yini Ma (EAPS)

Yini Ma joined the department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences in the fall of 2008. In her first year at Purdue, she took courses in ecosystem ecology, soil biogeochemistry and stable isotope chemistry. She is currently working on a project that focuses on past land use change and current invasive earthworm impact on soil carbon and nitrogen cycling in deciduous forest ecosystem.  Yini presented posters of her work in American Geophysical Union annual meeting in 2009 and 2010, as well as a talk in China-US Joint Symposium “Energy, Ecosystem, and Environmental Change” Annual Meeting, Beijing, 2010. Yini was awarded the CIC-Smithsonian fellowship for 2011-2012 academic year and now conducting her research in the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center starting June 2011 on a project: “The influence of invasive and native earthworm activity on microbial community structure and carbon cycling dynamic in an eastern US deciduous forest” using laboratory incubation as well as molecular technique. Yini is working with Tim Filley in the department of  Earth & Atmospheric Sciences.

Our Recent Graduates

Mr. Jinyun Tang (EAPS)

Since May 2011, Jinyun has been with the  Department of Climate Science in the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to work as a post-doc scientist. His is to develop a biogeochemical transport and reaction model for CLM4 (CLM4BeTR) as one of the first efforts towards our next generation ecosystem model in earth system modeling. The work is expected to provide a test-bed for further developments in our perception of the ecosystem dynamics, and to provide an efficient framework to investigate the possible feedbacks between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere.

 

Charlotte Kendra Castillo - 2007

This last year, Kendra (Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Prof. Kevin Gurney, advisor) was part of an interdisciplinary team that initiated a project to measure Boilermakers’ attitudes on sustainability. The project involved creating and implementing a survey, “The Boilermaker Lifestyle Survey,” which was pilot-tested during the Fall Semester, 2007. The team presented their findings at the Ecological Sciences and Engineering Student Research Symposium in November, 2007 and won a 2nd place award. The project was also entered in Purdue’s “Idea-to-Product Competition for Environmental and Social Entrepreneurship” in March 2008.

Kendra attended the 2008 Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (Sustainable development and climate change) as one of the international graduate student delegates. Upon her return, she presented her experiences at the spring semester Graduate Students Seminar Series. Most recently, Kendra has been developing a research project aimed at understanding the climate impacts of applying the "preservation pathway" to tropical forests. She is also a Fulbright Scholar and a PEO International Peace Scholar.

Collaborating with scientists at Purdue University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Joseph (Department of Agronomy, Prof. Dev Niyogi, advisor) was invited to NCAR during the summers of 2006, 2007, and 2008 through the Advanced Study Program and the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Visiting Scientist Program. He has been investigating the linkages between the heterogeneity of surface characteristics and the spatial variability of surface fluxes. Using a combination of surface, remotely sensed, and modeled data, in conjunction with flux footprint and spatial statistical analysis techniques, Joseph's work seeks to clarify the influence of surface properties, such as land use and vegetation density, on land-atmosphere exchange processes. In 2007, he was awarded a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship. He was also recognized as the Outstanding Ph.D. Student in Research and the recipient of the Wayne P. Rothgreb Memorial Scholarship awarded through the Department of Agronomy, Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences. Joseph was the author or co-author of six papers published during 2007.

Vimal Mishra -2006

In March, 2010, Vimal Mishra (2006 Fellow; Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Prof. Keith Cherkauer, advisor) successfully defended his PhD dissertation, “Understanding the impacts of historic climate variability and climate change on lakes in the Great Lakes Region.”  Dr. Mishra is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington working with Prof. Dennis Lettenmaier.

Joseph Alfieri - 2005

Joseph Alfieri (2005 Fellow; Agronomy, Prof. Dev Niyogi, advisor) successfully defended his PhD dissertation, “Impacts of spatial heterogeneity on the measurement and modeling of land-atmosphere interactions.” Dr. Alfieri accepted a position with the  USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville, MD where he is a Research Physical Scientist.