Stuart Edris Wins David James Shellberg Memorial Scholarship

Stuart Edris Wins David James Shellberg Memorial Scholarship

Stuart Edris is the 2018 recipient of the David James Shellberg Memorial Scholarship. The College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences presents this scholarship annually to a student who shows exemplary vision focused on the utility of surface observations in memory of David Shellberg. David Shellberg earned a B.S. degree in Meteorology from Purdue University, and later attended the University of Oklahoma for graduate school. He earned his M.S. degree in Meteorology from OU in 1994. David was an integral part in making the Oklahoma Mesonet a reality in the early 1990s, but died in an airplane crash in Indiana on October 31, 1994.

This is the second time that Edris has been awarded the David James Shellberg Memorial Scholarship. The Oklahoma Mesonet announced their decision on May 17th. Edris, who is now a first-year graduate student in the School of Meteorology, earned a B.S. in Meteorology in May along with a B.S. in Geography.

Edris began his relationship with the Oklahoma Mesonet during his undergraduate time at OU. He said:

“I have been using their data for a while now (since I was introduced to their data archives back in Meteorological Measurements class). Beyond that, I have also worked with their lead researcher for my meteorology capstone project. That started out because my capstone partner and I had decided to study the soil moisture impacts on the Oklahoma City urban heat island…”

In 2017 he was honored along with co-author Jason Newby for their paper Soil Moisture Impacts on the Oklahoma City Urban Heat Island.  This time Edris was honored for his paper Evaluation of Satellite Estimated Evapotranspiration from the MODIS Satellite with Surface Observations in Oklahoma. This is an amazing accomplishment, and he told us:

“Besides obviously feeling honored to do so, my initial reaction was surprise. I had less time and more to do on my second project (mostly because I was working alone rather than with another person), so I was uncertain how well it would do compared to others. Hence, I was surprised when I won a second time, especially after learning that winning the Shellberg Award twice is not a common thing.”

Edris said that the David James Shellberg Memorial Scholarship is a great opportunity for students. Congratulations Stuart!