On behalf of the Meteorology Program, the ARTP Disaster Science Operations Center, and the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences, we are pleased and excited to announce a high-profile speaking engagement from Drs. Josh Wurman and Karen Kosiba, who will present at WKU on the topic of mobilized remote sensing technology for the advancement of severe weather research. If you are interested in any of these topics, find time to prioritize your attendance.

• Meteorology and Climatology
• Severe Weather (especially tornadogenesis and other high-impact weather events)
• Natural Hazards and Societal Impacts
• Precipitation Science
• Physics
• Remote Sensing (especially radar technology and applications)
• Science Technology for monitoring and prediction

Dr. Josh Wurman is the current Executive Director of the Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets (FARM) and Doppler on Wheels/C-Band radar on Wheels (DOW/COW) facility at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Wurman is credited with the development of the DOW systems, which have been utilized to observe tornadoes, hurricanes, winter storms, and wildfires around the world. He earned a S.B. in physics and interdisciplinary science in 1982, a S.M. in meteorology in 1982, and a Sc.D. in meteorology in 1991, all from MIT. Outside of his innovative academic successes, Dr. Wurman is famously known for contributions and air-time on The Discovery Channel’s hit show, Storm Chasers. He has also been featured in IMAX theaters, PBS’ Nova, the History Channel, among many other global communications outlets. Dr. Wurman is a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Nifty Fifty, a collection of the most influential scientists and engineers in the United States that are dedicated to reinvigorating the interest of young people in science and engineering.

Dr. Karen Kosiba is the current Managing Director of the Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets (FARM) facility and Research Scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She has a B.S. in Physics from Loyola University, an M.S. in Physics and an M.A.T in Teacher Education from Miami University, and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Purdue University. Key to her research is executing field projects to collect data that can be analyzed to better understand and predict these hazardous weather events.  Additionally, she is passionate about science education, regularly participating in outreach activities at schools, museums, and festivals, and online and through media interviews and consultations. project leader in a multitude of field projects, including: Radar Observations of Tornadoes and Thunderstorms Experiment (ROTATE), Hurricanes and Landfall (HAL), Convectively and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS), and the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Thunderstorms Experiment (VORTEX2), Long Lake-Axis-Parallel Lake-Effect Storms Project  (LLAP), AgI Seeding Cloud Impact Investigation (ASCII), Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems (OWLeS), Plains Elevated Convection At Night (PECAN),  Tornadic Winds: In situ and Radar at Low-levels (TWIRL), SNOWIE (Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime Clouds: The Idaho Experiment), GRAINEX, RELAMPAGO, WINTRE-MIX, and PERiLS.  She has collected data in over 100 tornadoes and has deployed radars in nine hurricanes. http://www.karenkosiba.com/   

Information about the event details can be seen in the flyer below.

The engineering students of the Ogden College of Science & Engineering (OCSE) at the Center for Energy Systems (CES) demonstrated their industrial and NSF projects to the WKU Board of Regents and Dean David Brown.

Director Chris Groves and students Evie Dukes and Leah Groves from WKU's Crawford Hydrology Lab (CHL) attended an international training course organized by IRCK and UNESCO in China. WKU has a long-standing collaboration with Chinese colleagues in water resources research. Evie and Leah presented their work at Mammoth Cave during the course. The training focused on cave and karst studies in China's karst landscapes, including deep sinkholes and caves. Chris Groves is a regular instructor in the course and often takes WKU students to China. The trip also involved meetings with US Embassy officials and discussions about future collaborations with Mammoth Cave National Park. The WKU group expressed gratitude to their Chinese colleagues and received support from various departments and programs at WKU.

The Spring 2023 Center Directors Retreat and Celebration of Student Research Accomplishments was an event that brought together center directors and students from the ARTP program to celebrate research accomplishments. This event provided an opportunity for center directors to share ideas and experiences, learn from each other, and plan future collaborations. Additionally, it recognized and honored the hard work and achievements of students who have made significant contributions to research projects.

The Applied Center for Data Science is pleased to announce their second annual Data Science Day on Tuesday, April 4th. This year, our plenary speaker is Renée Cummings from the University of Virginia and Columbia University. Renée is a data activist studying the impact of artificial intelligence on criminal justice. Everyone is invited to Renée's talk on her research and findings.

For more information regarding the event, see the Data Science Half Day information page.

Western Kentucky University will receive $460,000 in federal funding to help upgrade instrumentation and equipment in five research centers in the WKU Applied Research and Technology Program (ARTP).

For more information on the award received visit:
https://www.wku.edu/news/articles/index.php?view=article&articleid=11085

Engineering students at the WKU Center for Energy Systems (CES) successfully completed and delivered their industry-sponsored project to Tempur-Sealy International, Inc. in Greensboro, NC. This is a custom research and development testbed, which measures "pillow thermal comfort," enabling pillow material optimization.

For more information on the event visit: https://www.nashvillesuperspeedway.com/

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The Crawford Hydrology Laboratory (CHL) within WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program (ARTP) is a nationally leading laboratory for the study of groundwater flow with an emphasis on specialized study of karst landscape development in soluble bedrock in which caves, sinkholes and large springs are common, and groundwater resources are extremely vulnerable to contamination.

In May, CHL is hosting a webinar Fluorescent Dye Tracing: Applied Methods for Environmental Solutions. With about 25 participants, the webinar has attracted an international audience from around the US as well as from Belgium, Jamaica, and Ecuador, including scientists from government agencies, environmental consulting firms, and even cave explorers interested in better understanding the landscapes they explore.

For more information call Lee Anne Bledsoe at 270 745 9224.  

Celebrating The 75th Kentucky Mesonet Station!

Learn About the history and goals of the Kentucky Climate Center/Mesonet by visiting our center's celebratory page.