Keynote Speakers

Image

Dr. Frank Lombardo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he also serves as Co-Director of the Extreme Wind Resilience Center. Dr. Lombardo specializes in wind engineering, where he focuses on characterization of extreme winds such as tornadoes and thunderstorms and the associated loading and damage they cause to the built and natural environment through field, experimental and analytical research. Through this research, he is committed to bridging the gap between the atmospheric sciences and civil engineering. He also serves on professional committees related to windstorms including the ASCE Wind Load Subcommittee (WLSC). He serves as vice-chair of the tornado task committee of the WLSC, which has developed tornado loading provisions for inclusion in ASCE 7-22.

Image

Dr. Naomi Oreskes is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. An internationally renowned scientist and historian, she is a leading voice on the reality on anthropogenic climate change and the history of efforts to undermine climate action and scientific truth. 

Oreskes is an author of nine books, including, Why Trust Science? (2019) and Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean (2021), and over 150 scholarly and popular articles. Her opinion pieces have been appeared around the globe, including on The New York Times, The  Washington Post, The Times (London), and the Frankfurter Allgemeine. In 2015, she wrote the  Introduction to the Melville House edition of the Papal Encyclical on Climate Change and  Inequality, Laudato Si. Her 2010 book with Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt, has been translated  into nine languages, sold over 100,000 copies, and made into a documentary film. In 2018, she  became a Guggenheim Fellow, and in 2019 was awarded the British Academy Medal. Her new book  with Erik Conway, The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free  Market, was published by Bloomsbury Press in February 2023.

Image

Dr. Russ Schumacher is professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, and also serves as the Colorado State Climatologist and director of the Colorado Climate Center. Russ received his B.S. with majors in meteorology and humanities from Valparaiso University in Indiana in 2001. He received his M.S. in 2003 and Ph.D. in 2008 from the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Russ’s research group uses observations, numerical models, and machine learning methods to advance the understanding and prediction of high-impact weather. He received the Clarence Leroy Meisinger early-career research award from the American Meteorological Society in 2021.

Workshops

Early Careers Panel:

Thinking about where you want to work after college? If you're graduating soon, do you want to apply to graduate school? How does working in academia compare to working in industry? This panel aims to answer these questions, with unique perspectives from three speakers from different sectors who all work within the realm of atmospheric sciences. Our speakers will be:

• Dr. Deanna Hence - Assistant Professor at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• Andrew Pritchard - Senior Meteorologist at Nutrien
• Sara Amatuzio - Catastrophe Research Manager at State Farm Insurance

We’ll discuss applying for graduate school, working in industry, and looking for a variety of jobs within atmospheric sciences. Come to this panel with lots of questions and be ready to learn a lot!

Severe Weather Workshop

Image

Image

See one of the Doppler on Wheels (DOW) mobile radar trucks - a key component in the UIUC Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets (FARM) facility. The DOW radar facility in particular has served the scientific community as part of the University of Illinois since 2020 and has been among the most widely used radar facilities, participating in over 30 field campaigns including SNOWIE (2017), RELAMPAGO (2018) and PERiLS (2022).

Graduate School and Careers Fair

Join us for the second MSCAR graduate schools and careers fair, where attendees can connect with employers and schools from across the Midwest including...

MSCAR Hackathon 2023 

This year, MSCAR is hosting the very first MSCAR Hackathon where we will give attendees the opportunity to work on a challenging research question. The hackathon is suited to allow anyone, no matter prior experience with coding, to have the opportunity to compete. To ensure this, we have created a brief and fast paste python tutorial that will help those with little to no experience on-board into the subject material. This year, the Hackathon will be about advancing cloud detection in satelite remote sensing!