Kyle Clem

Class Year:
Class of 2011, 2013

Email: kyle.clem@rutgers.edu

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.