Weather and Society Watch
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Connecting Weather and Society: My transition to Grad School
by Marcus Walter*

Most meteorologists fall in love with weather at an early age. Indeed, I became interested in weather around the age of 12. I would find myself watching The Weather Channel all day, sometimes for no reason, and other times to hear about the latest tornado in the Midwest or hurricane in the Atlantic. Today, as a recent graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in meteorology, my interest in weather is keener than ever. And throughout the last two years of my educational experience, my interests have broadened from focusing only on weather to learning more about how weather affects society and business.

I developed this new interest after attending the 87th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in January 2007. At the meeting, I discovered that the business world has a growing need for meteorologists who possess weather forecasting skills and an understanding of statistics to help companies manage their weather risk. Weather directly or indirectly affects more than one-third of the nation’s economy, and understanding those effects can help businesses mitigate financial losses resulting from weather. I became even more interested in this area after participating in the SOARS (Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Sciences) program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. There, I studied floods and heat waves. These extreme weather events can have major impacts on society that range from loss of life to millions of dollars in damaged property. From this research I learned that there is an urgent need to better understand these events and to help society protect itself from them.

As I entered my senior year in college, realizing that I wanted to learn more about the connections among meteorology, business, and society, I decided to pursue a graduate degree. But finding a graduate program with faculty members who have interests similar to mine wasn’t exactly simple. Because this is a relative new area of meteorology, many graduate programs had no such research initiatives at their respective institutions. But through attending American Meteorological Society annual meetings, participating in the SOARS program, and researching several graduate programs around the country, I was able to find a program at Cornell University where I could study both weather and its impacts on society and business.

For those of you who want to research interdisciplinary interests or interests in new areas of research in graduate school but don’t know where to begin your search for an appropriate program of study, here are some helpful suggestions:

1. Do a simple internet search for your interests. Search engines are so advanced these days à they will be a valuable tool in your search for not only information on your interests, but possible graduate programs as well.
   
   
2. Tell a professor or instructor of your interests. In most cases professors and instructors can be helpful in leading you to a graduate program that fits your interests.
   
   
3. Attend seminars/conferences related to your interests. Doing this will allow you to learn even more about your research interests and related topics. This will give you a chance to meet faculty and researchers from universities around world and find out if they have programs that fit your interests.

These suggestions were all helpful in finding an appropriate graduate program for my interests.

Looking to the future, I see numerous opportunities to learn more about and conduct research in this emerging field. I believe that this work will benefit society and business in the years to come, and I’m excited to be a part of it!

*Marcus (walterm at ucar.edu) is a second year protégé in the Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Sciences (SOARS) Program at NCAR, a recent graduate of The Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Meteorology, and as of fall 2008 will be a first-year master's student within the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University.