Two SoM Seniors win NWA Awards

Two SoM Seniors win NWA Awards

Near the end of 2020, two School of Meteorology seniors won awards presented by the National Weather Association (NWA). Amanda Novak and Nash Rhodes won the “Bob Glahn Scholarship in Statistical Meteorology” and “Broadcast Meteorology Scholarship” awards, respectfully.
The Bob Glahn Scholarship in Statistical Meteorology awards one college student in the United States who “has a true interest in statistics and might be interested in a career in meteorology related to statistics.” Novak credits winning this award to her involvement during her college years.
“I think being involved within the School of Meteorology helped, as well as having a computer science and mathematics double minor,” she said. “In addition to the math minor, I have taken additional mathematics classes which probably helped. I’ve been interning at the Radar Operations Center and have helped with creating scripts and performing data analysis, and also completed my honors research with the College of Aerospace and Mechanical engineering about reconstructing wind fields with quadcopter drones – effectively using meteorology in an interdisciplinary way and also creating a simulator script.”
Novak was ecstatic to receive this award.
“I felt very excited!” she said. “I am passionate about the intersection of meteorology and statistical science, so it was amazing to win a specific award pertaining to my future goals. I’m also so thankful for NWA for offering this award.”
The Broadcast Meteorology Scholarship awards one college student in the United States who is “a talented student that plans on pursuing a career in broadcast meteorology.” Rhodes also notes that his involvement in extracurricular activities helped him excel over other applicants.
“I anchored over 40 live shows this summer working part-time at WNKY-TV in Southern Kentucky,” he said. “I also wrote and published 6 weather-related articles for CNN and have partnered with Radarscope (a DTN product) to produce Doppler radar explainer videos. Additionally, I presented at the 6th Annual Intelligence and National Security Symposium at OU.”
Rhodes was surprised to win this award.
“I was shocked and honored,” he said. “Many talented meteorologists within the field had previously been awarded this scholarship, and I was humbled that the NWAF board had selected me.”
This is the second time in seven years that an OU student has won the NWA Broadcast Meteorology Scholarship.
After graduation, Novak plans to either attend graduate school for either machine learning and AI or radar algorithms research or get a job upon graduation and work in a field that employs using data science or computer science techniques to solve meteorology problems. Rhodes plans to start his career as a broadcast meteorologist.
We are so proud of you, Amanda and Nash! Keep up the great work!