Prospective students interested in pursuing graduate or postdoctoral research are encouraged to contact Christina Patricola at cmp28@iastate.edu.
Research Areas:
- climate variability and change
- climate dynamics
- tropical cyclones
- extreme weather/climate events
- atmosphere-ocean interactions
- high-resolution climate modeling
- paleoclimate
Current group members
Chris Patricola - Professor and Principal Investigator
I am an Associate Professor at Iowa State University and an Affiliate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I received my PhD in Atmospheric Science from Cornell University. My research focuses on variability and change in extreme weather events on future to paleo timescales. I enjoy designing and running high-resolution climate model experiments to understand how large-scale drivers and local-scale feedbacks in the Earth System influence extreme weather, especially tropical cyclones.
Mary Jurgensen - PhD student
Mary is a PhD student at Iowa State University investigating influences of climate change and land-atmosphere interactions on mesoscale convective systems.
Braydon Songer - MS student
Braydon will join the group in summer 2025.
Joshua Schwarz - concurrent BS/MS student
Josh is a concurrent MS/BS Meteorology Student at Iowa State University investigating future changes in derecho events using convection-permitting regional model simulations. Josh is advised by William Gallus (primary) and Christina Patricola.
Derrick Danso - postdoctoral researcher
I am a postdoctoral researcher at Iowa State University under the supervision of Christina Patricola. I received my Ph.D. in Ocean, Atmosphere, and Hydrological Sciences from the Université Grenoble Alpes, France. My research focuses on understanding how tropical disturbances, specifically African Easterly Waves, control the intensity and variability of tropical cyclones using high-resolution climate models.
Undergraduate researchers
- John Muldoon
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2025)
- Hunter Williams
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2025)
Alumni
Emily Bercos-Hickey
Emily is now a Research Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Emily was a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under the supervision of Christina M. Patricola. Her research interests include using global and regional climate models to examine extreme weather events, such as tropical cyclones, and the complex meteorology over North Africa, specifically African easterly waves.
Ronald Kouski - concurrent BS/MS student
Ron was a concurrent MS/BS Meteorology Student at Iowa State University and earned his MS in summer 2025. His thesis is on "The Influence of African Easterly Waves on Tropical Cyclone Tracks and Landfall in Large Ensembles."
Dakota Forbis - PhD student
Dakota earned his PhD in Meteorology at Iowa State University in summer 2025. His dissertation investigated future changes in tropical cyclone characteristics, including tropical cyclone tornadoes and precipitation, using convection-permitting regional climate model simulations.
Nathan Erickson
Nathan earned his MS in Meteorology at Iowa State University in May 2024. His thesis is on "Future Changes in Early-Season Severe Weather: A Comparison of Machine Learning and Convection-Permitting Dynamical Downscaling." Nathan is now pursuing a PhD at University of Oklahoma.
Tyler Mercurio
Tyler earned his MS in Meteorology at Iowa State University in May 2024. His thesis is on "Future Changes in Historically Impactful Midwest Extreme Precipitation Events."
Teryn Mueller
Teryn was a concurrent MS/BS Meteorology Student at Iowa State University and earned his MS in May 2023. His thesis is on "The Influence of ENSO Diversity on Future Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Activity." Teryn is now an Exposure Management Analyst at Assurant.
Ana Sena - postdoctoral researcher
Ana was a postdoctoral researcher at Iowa State University. She received her PhD in Earth System Science at University of California Irvine. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms by which climate change may influence the global distribution of tropical cyclones, by performing experiments in global climate models.
Huanping Huang
Huanping is now an Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University: https://www.lsu.edu/ga/people/faculty/huanping-huang.php
Huanping was a postdoctoral fellow in the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, under the supervision of Christina M. Patricola and William D. Collins. He received his PhD in Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College. Huanping's research focused on the detection and attribution of hydroclimate extremes, as well as the physical mechanisms through which natural variability and anthropogenic forcing alter hydroclimate extremes.
Group photos
Previous undergraduate researchers
- Michael Jones
- First-Year Honors Program (Spring 2024)
- Independent study (Fall 2024)
- Madeline Medvec
- Undergraduate researcher (Spring 2024)
- Austyn Hartwig
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2024)
- Jacob Olson
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2024)
- Michael Ruth
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2024)
- Kyle Curry
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2023)
- Grace Hansen
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2023)
- First-Year Honors Program (Spring 2021)
- Jonathan Wolf-Wainggai
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2023)
- Lexie Merley (currently Meteorologist at Dakota News Now)
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2022)
- Delenn Palmer
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2022)
- Nathan Erickson (currently PhD student at The University of Oklahoma)
- LAS Dean's High Impact Award (Spring 2022)
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2021)
- Juan Pablo Mangual
- LAS Dean's High Impact Award (Spring 2022)
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2021)
- Daniel Cassidy (currently Meteorologist at KWWL)
- Undergraduate researcher (Spring 2022)
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (2021)
- Jared Schadler
- Undergraduate researcher (Summer 2021)
- Allysa Dallman (currently graduate student at UT Austin)
- LAS Dean's High Impact Award (Spring 2021)
- Meteorology Senior Thesis (Fall 2020)
- Flor Vanessa Maciel (currently graduate student at UCLA)
- Berkeley Lab Undergraduate Research program, LBNL (Summer 2020)
updated 6/11/2025