Message from Department Head, Bill Brune
Greetings. As I enter my 11th year as Department Head, I look back with satisfaction on our successes and look forward with anticipation to even more successes in the future. In the meantime, we are busy bridging between the past and the future. This is an exciting time for Penn State Meteorology.
Our faculty is changing. With the retirements of several of our outstanding faculty members in the past year, we began a search for new faculty members. Replacing a quarter of the faculty in a year or so is a monumental task, but that is what we have done. We are proud to announce that three of the candidates – Dr. Fuqing Zhang, Dr. Marcelo Chamecki, and Dr. Chris Forest – joined our faculty in Fall 2008. Last summer, Dr. Jose Fuentes joined our faculty as well.
Our research and teaching horizons are expanding into weather and climate risk management. This program weds the understanding and prediction of weather and climate with the understanding of economics and business. The common skill is quantitative analysis; the common goal is to use weather and climate information in economic decision-making. We have a new option in Weather Risk Management for undergraduates, two NSF research grants, and a great interest from students and companies. We are only just beginning to realize the potential that this interdisciplinary research holds and are pursuing a range of interesting opportunities.
Our undergraduate curriculum is evolving as meteorology and atmospheric science evolve. To prepare students for future careers, the faculty has made the first major revision to the undergraduate curriculum in at least 15 years. The result is a curriculum that has more flexibility, better integration, fewer required courses, more technical electives, and increased learning in statistics and computer programming. We have accomplished these changes without losing any of the rigor for which a Penn State Meteorology degree is known.
The Weather Station on the 6th floor of Walker has just been transformed into a learning and social center for the future! In May 2008, the demolition of the old Weather Station and the construction of the awesome new Weather Station began. Our goal was to create a facility that will keep the qualities that our students, faculty, staff, and alumni so cherish and yet will serve the students and department well for the next thirty years and beyond. This renovation was costly. If you would like future generations of Penn State meteorologists to have the friendships and shared experiences that the Weather Station gave you, please contribute to the Weather Station renovation project.
Finally, I want to call your attention to the generosity of Professors Dennis and Joan Thomson, who have endowed a Distinguished Graduate Fellowship of Meteorology. This fellowship will help us recruit even more exceptional students into our graduate program. The Thomson’s generous gift, we hope, is just the first of many from the Penn State Meteorology family.
