Kyle Clem’s fascination with meteorology began as a young child. The power of weather, it’s impact on people, and the challenges in forecasting all excited Kyle. Over time, Kyle’s curiosity in the weather turned into a deep passion to understand it. This led Kyle to Ohio University in 2007 where he pursued his bachelor’s degree in Meteorology. In the summer of 2011, Kyle was hired as an undergraduate research assistant under Dr. Ryan Fogt investigating large-scale atmospheric circulation variability across the Southern Hemisphere, particularly in the high latitude South Pacific and its influence on the climate of Antarctica. Despite having an early fascination in severe weather, Kyle was hooked immediately for two main reasons: the study of climate allowed him to apply his passion of meteorology in a way that improved our understanding of the world’s weather and its past and future changes, and, more specifically, climate variability across the high latitude South Pacific was poorly understood compared to the rest of the globe. As a result, Kyle continued his studies at OU and earned an M.S. in Geography in April 2014. In addition to research, Kyle was very active in the meteorology program throughout his time at OU. During his graduate studies, Kyle served as the Associate Director of the Scalia Laboratory, and was course instructor of Meteorological Observations (GEOG 3030) and Practicum in Meteorology and Forecasting (GEOG 3040). As an undergrad, Kyle served as the president of the OU Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society (OUCAMS) during the 2011-2012 academic year, and vice-president during 2010-2011 year. Kyle was also the recipient of the Outstanding Senior Leader Award, the Dean of Students’ Citation, and the David Keirns Public Service Award in Meteorology. Altogether, Kyle spent seven years at OU following his dreams and preparing for a career in meteorology. The exceptional opportunities of teaching and researching that OU’s meteorology program provided allowed Kyle to realize his ultimate career goal: to become a professor of meteorology. In August of 2014, Kyle will be moving to Wellington, New Zealand where he will pursue his PhD at Victoria University under Associate Professor Dr. James Renwick, bringing him one more step closer to achieve his goal of being a professor. Kyle’s primary research interests are still rooted in the atmospheric circulation variability across the South Pacific, particularly its influence on Antarctic climate variability including the ongoing warming, sea ice trends, and ice sheet loss in the West Antarctic/Antarctic Peninsula region. Kyle will be moving to Wellington with his wife, and hopes to return to Ohio in 2017.

Joe is originally from Long Island, NY, and graduated with a BS in Atmospheric Science from the University at Albany in 1996, with minors in Math and Geography. He then came to Ohio University as a graduate student, serving as Scalia Lab’s Associate Director in 1997 and 1998 and graduating with an MA in Geography in 1998. Joe completed a thesis titled “Using Storm Track Climatology to Develop Synoptic Scenarios for the States of the Ohio Valley”.

After graduating from OU, Joe worked for Weather or Not in Shawnee, KS from 1998-1999, and Surface Weather Systems in St. Louis, MO from 1999-2002. In November 2002, Joe became a Meteorological Intern at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Charleston, SC and was promoted to General Forecaster in June 2003, running the Climate and Aviation programs. He was then promoted to Senior Forecaster at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Chanhassen, MN in May 2011, where he runs the Aviation program.

Three weeks after graduation I received a job at a news station in Medford, Oregon to be weekend meteorologist and reporter for KTVL-TV. I will be out here for three years and my hope is to be a morning meteorologist at my next station.

Bryan J. Bunton is an environmental specialist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Field Services and Compliance Bureau in Des Moines, Iowa. Bryan received a Bachelor of Science degree in meteorology from Ohio University in 1997 under the direction and tutelage of Dr. Ron Isaac. During his tenure at Ohio, Bryan pioneered the use of creativity on the Scalia Lab weather forecasting hotline with phrases like “it was cloudy as a physics lecture” and “ice ice baby, you cold, you cold.” From there, Bryan went on to obtain a Master’s of Science degree in atmospheric sciences from North Carolina State University in 1999. In his current position in Des Moines, Bryan provides business and industry assistance in maintaining compliance with Iowa’s air quality and animal feeding operations rules and regulations, and ensures that the air is safe to breathe for those citizens and livestock who are proud to call Iowa home.

Emily Baird is getting her start in news at WHIZ, having joined in September 2008. Originally from the Youngstown area, Emily attended school at Ohio University and was a student in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. It was here that she received her broadcast journalism degree, her meteorology minor, and her specialization in geography.

During her four years at OU, Emily became an active member of the news and weather team at WOUB. She reported, produced, anchored news, and anchored weather for NewsWatch-a completely student-produced nightly newscast. It was because of her time here that she became very familiar with coverage in Southeastern Ohio. As a Senior, Emily was named head weather coordinator/producer. Some of her roles for that position included producing an on-air forecast for the OU football games, training new recruits, and maintaining consistency within the weather department.

The OU Geography Department also employed Emily. She was a forecaster for Scalia Lab, and worked with one of her geography professors too, becoming a Lab Teaching Assistant for two quarters. She taught one lab for the course Introduction to Weather and another lab for the course Introduction to Meteorology.

It has always been a dream of Emily’s to forecast weather on-air. She has been working toward that childhood goal since she was five. Her fascination with weather started one day when she was watching the Weather Channel to see if she would have a snow day from school, and she has been hooked ever since then.

When Emily is not watching the weather or working, she enjoys skiing, watching movies, cooking, and spending time with her family and friends.

Over the 2 years of his time at Ohio University, Ian was continuously busy balancing his work between his Associate Director responsibilities and his graduate student responsibilities. As the Associate Director, he worked hard with his fellow Scalia Employees to take the Laboratory’s public presence to the next level, including overseeing the transfer of the website to a more secure server, the initiation and progression of a brand new website, and the continued outreach and educational opportunities with the public. He notes that it was a tremendous pleasure working with each of his employees, and knows that together they worked hard and achieved their goals for the lab. He also continued the Associate Director tradition of teaching the Meteorological Observation and Forecasting classes, rewriting the curriculum and bringing in new material to provide the most optimal environment for his students to learn and grow as meteorologists and forecasters. Finally, Ian worked with Dr. Houser on his thesis: A Statistical Analysis of Topographic and Ground Cover Effects on Tornadoes using RaXPol Mobile Radar. He hoped to potentially break ground into another clue into understanding the forces and processes that influence tornadogenesis and evolution, and his inital results appeared promising.

Post graduation, Ian has accepted a position as a Weather Observer and Education Specialist for the world renowned Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire. He is collecting and recording hourly weather observations at the mountain’s summit, and working to further public education and outreach regarding severe weather in the mountains. He is very excited for this opportunity, having dreamt of forecasting severe weather since he was a small boy.

Jackie received her Bachelors of Science in Geography-Meteorology in the Spring of 2016 at OU, where she was heavily involved in OUCAMS. She served as a Co-Events Coordinator in 2014 and then served as Vice President during her senior year. During her involvement in 2014, OUCAMS was awarded the Student Chapter of the Year award. Jackie also held an internship where she served as a liaison between students and the University with the Office of Sustainability, in order to help implement benchmarks for the Ohio University Climate Action Plan as well as the Ohio University Sustainability Plan. After graduation, Jackie and her fiance moved back to Columbus, Ohio after a short move to Tampa, Florida. The college sweethearts married in December of 2017, shortly after Jackie started her Masters of Science degree at Ball State University for GIS.