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At the close of the 2006-2007 academic year, let me to take this opportunity to reflect on the events of the year in our department. First, we bid farewell to our graduating senior class, at least one of whom is planning to continue on into our graduate program this Fall. As you know, last year's forecasting class won the National Collegiate Weather Weather Forecasting Contest (NCWFC), beating out teams from over 40 other schools in the US. This year, SJSU finished in third place - again an outstanding achievement. Congratulations to our team and their instructor, Mike Voss, who is a two-time winner of the individual forecasting contest. One of our graduate students - Fred Snively - finished his MS thesis this year. His thesis work, under the guidance of Professor Cordero, is entitled: "Intercomparison of Lower Stratospheric Performance of Global Reanalyses". Fred is staying on next year to participate in a number of activities, including submitting his work for publication and presenting his work at an international conference in Japan. Several of our students recently presented research work at the SJSU College of Science Research Day. These included graduate students Sium Tesfai, John Noble, Wittaya Kessomkiat, and Bereket Lebassi (now in a PhD program at SCU), and undergraduate student Scott Strenfel. Congratulations to them - and their advisors (Professors Cordero, Rickenbach and Bridger)! Our faculty continue to be very active on the research front. Professors Eugene Cordero, Bob Bornstein, Tom Rickenbach, Doug Sinton & Mike Voss have attended and/or made presentations at variety of conferences and workshops this year. As I write this, Professor Bornstein is back from a semester spent visiting a variety of collaborators around the world. At the same time, Professor Cordero has left the county for a year-long sabbatical to be spent at institutions in Mexico, Germany and Australia. Professor Rickenbach will be re-locating to East Carolina University this Fall, and we wish him and his family the best of luck there! We are excited to announce the arrival of a new faculty member this coming Fall. Dr. Craig Clements will be joining the department in August to begin his career here. In his graduate work, Dr. Clements has studied mesoscale weather phenomena, and has specialized in boundary layer processes and measurements. In particular, his is an expert in the field of Fire Weather. There is no doubt that Craig will be a superb addition to our faculty. We hope to be able to search for another new faculty member next year - keep your eyes open for the announcement! Finally, a word about our weather. Last year brought a record rainy and cool spell in Spring (http://www.met.sjsu.edu/march-06.html), followed by a scorching heatwave in summer (http://www.met.sjsu.edu/july-06.html). This year has been the driest in about 20 years (http://www.met.sjsu.edu/drought.html). As you can see, although we don't have killer blizzards, tornadoes, or hurricanes in California, our weather is still very variable, and we face plenty of challenges in studying, forecasting - and planning for - our weather! Hope you all have a productive yet relaxing summer! See you next year! Alison Bridger, Chair July 2007
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