People

Current Members

Dr. Alex O. Gonzalez (he/him/his)

Assistant Professor, Principal Investigator

Alex grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA and always had a love for math and science; he was particularly interested in the science behind natural disasters. His interest in meteorology picked up when he was a teenager after seeing the movie, Twister. He studied meteorology and mathematics at Penn State University, where he graduated with a B.S. in 2008. He attended graduate school at Colorado State University, graduating with an M.S. in 2011 and Ph.D. in 2015 in Atmospheric Science. After graduate school, he was a postdoc for 2.5 years with a joint appointment between UCLA and NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab before he was an Assistant Professor of Meteorology at Iowa State University from 2018–2022. He joined WHOI's Physical Oceanography Department as an Assistant Scientist in the Summer of 2022. His broad research interests include:

Fouzia Fahrin

Ph.D. Candidate

Fouzia was born and grew up in Bangladesh, and she is passionate about Tropical Meteorology. Fouzia finished her undergraduate degree in Mathematics from University of Dhaka and her master’s degree from Georgia Southern University. Fouzia started her Ph.D. in Meteorology in Fall 2021 at Iowa State University. Her research focuses on understanding the interactions between the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), low clouds, and tropical waves on subseasonal and seasonal timescales. Fouzia loves mountains ranges, and she enjoys exploring interesting atmospheric phenomena and understanding the science behind them.

Contact: ffahrin@iastate.edu

Chelone Laws

NSF SOARS Undergraduate Researcher

Chelone was born and raised in Harlem, New York City, and is a current undergraduate student and Posse Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She’s majoring in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and is pursuing a certificate in Professional Japanese Communications. She has worked in our group for the past two summers, 2024 and 2025 as part of the NSF SOARS program. In summer 2024, she researched the effects of increasing vertical resolution on the representation of the ITCZ and low clouds. In summer 2025, Chelone investigated how upper ocean stratification from prior rainfall events contributed to the rapid intenssification of Hurricane Lee (2023) over the Atlantic Ocean.

Contact: klaws@wisc.edu

Past Members

Chengfei He, (Now an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University)

Indrani Ganguly, Ph.D.

Marissa Osterloh (Now a Graduate Student at Iowa State University)

Travis Enzensperger (Now at the Cooperative Institute of Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations, CIWRO)

Jared Schadler (Now at NWS Aviation Weather Center in Kansas City, MO)

Anna Duhachek (Now a Graduate Student at Iowa State University)

Cassidy Cook (Now a Graduate Student at Western Governors University)

Katherine Hanson (Physical Science and AP Chemistry Teacher at Urbandale High School in Urbandale, Iowa)

Kevin Greene (Now a Senior Program Coordinator at Frontier Energy)

James Larson (Now a Graduate Student at Colorado State University)

Allysa Dallmann (Now a Climate and Collaboratory Planning Lead at the University of Texas at Austin)

Ashley Heath (Now a Scientific Programmer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland)

Matthew Statz, B.S.

Melissa Piper (Now a Ph.D. Candidate at The University at Albany, State University of New York)

Sara Foernssler (Now an On-Air Meteorologist in Grand Rapids, Michigan)