UCAR > Communications > UCAR Quarterly > Fall 2001 Search


Fall 2001

Boulder or bust: Arizona students visit NCAR

by Zhenya Gallon

Left to right: Feiquin Xie, Natalie Murray, Rebecca Matichuk, Kenneth Kehoe, Nicole Kempf, and Michael Garay. (Photo by Richard Anthes.)

After a 17-hour drive in a university van from Tucson to Boulder, six University of Arizona graduate students toured UCAR facilities and visited with scientific and technical staff on 16–17 August. The results: new ideas about research possibilities, a better understanding of NCAR's collaborative role in university research, and heightened excitement about their chosen field.

"It's been great," said Natalie Murray, one of the student visitors. "We always hear about people at NCAR doing particular types of research, but as far as what actually goes on here, we didn't know a lot about it [before the visit]."

The group was excited to discover the breadth of topics under investigation and appreciated the exposure to "things outside of what we do in our department," according to Kenneth Kehoe. The students

The group voiced enthusiastic approval for the informal nature of the visit, which gave them the opportunity to ask questions and see things for themselves. Rebecca Matichuk underlined everyone's enthusiasm for the up-close look at the C-130's instrumentation and the chance to ask questions. Kehoe added, "It kind of humbles you to realize how difficult it is to take good measurements." As a student in the classroom, "when we get the information, it's been processed three times. All the work's been taken out of it."

Michael Garay valued the opportunity to hear from researchers outside his specialty and to "interact with people that are excited about doing their research." Matichuk appreciated the honesty of the interactions, noting that participants "didn't just talk about the positive sides of their research" but also shared some of the vicissitudes.

This is the first time a group of students have organized such a visit on their own initiative, as far as Anthes can recall. UA departmental graduate advisor Eric Betterton, who serves on UCAR's University Relations Committee, suggested the trip, but according to Murray, "the organization had to come from us." Betterton also put the students in touch with Susan Warner and Susan Friberg of UCAR Corporate Affairs, who worked with the students to coordinate the visit.

ATD's Robert Rilling was one of the NCAR participants. "From our perspective," he said, "it was very refreshing to interact with the U of A group."

UA participants and their research areas

Michael Garay (5th year, atmospheric radiation and remote sensing)

Kenneth Kehoe (2nd year, satellite remote sensing of the ocean surface)

Nicole Kempf (2nd year, lightning and precipitation)

Rebecca Matichuk (1st year, human impacts on weather; remote sensing)

Natalie Murray (3rd year, lightning physics)

Feiqin Xie (1st year, remote sensing and the Global Positioning System)

UCAR and NCAR hosts

William Brown, Stephen Cohn, Steven Oncley, Robert Rilling (ATD)

Allen Schanot, Jeffrey Stith (RAF)

Thomas Warner (RAP)

William "Al" Cooper (ASP)

Jeffrey Boote (SCD)

Daniel McKenna (ACD)

Timothy Killeen (NCAR)

Richard Anthes, Susan Friberg, Susan Warner (UCAR)

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UCAR > Communications > UCAR Quarterly > Fall 2001 Search

Edited by Bob Henson, bhenson@ucar.edu
Prepared for the Web by Jacque Marshall
Last revised: Tue Oct 23 11:26:05 MDT 2001