Elizabeth Smith wins best Oral Presentation at the 24th Conference on Numerical Weather Prediction

Elizabeth Smith, a graduate student within the School of Meteorology, gave a presentation at the 2017 AMS (American Meteorological Society) Annual Meeting that was selected 1st place among oral presentations from all the student entries to the 24th Conference on Numerical Weather Prediction.

Smith’s Presentation was titled “The Great Plains Low-Level Jet During PECAN: Initial Comparisons of Profiling Observations with WRF Model Predictions”. A $200 prize also came with the award.

“I’m quite honored to receive this award from the AMS and excited to have been given the opportunity to share my work with others in the field.”

This was not Smith’s first time to attend AMS. She has attended every AMS meeting since 2012 and has been active within the society including chairing the Local Chapter Affairs Committee this past term. This is her first oral presentation award. She also won a weather-ready nation poster award at AMS in 2014.

Smith touts her undergraduate classes as the reason for pursuing her topic of research.  

I took a mesoscale class in undergrad and expected my favorite part of the class to be tornadoes and supercells, but one day my professor put up the Stull diagram of the evolution of the boundary layer from day to night, and I was hooked! The low-level jet is so amazing to me because it is the phenomenon that goes on just over our heads, and we often don’t even realize the winds are zipping up there!”

Smith is a hands-on type of person, who enjoys going out into the field.

“Outside of the boundary layer, I find mesoscale interactions fascinating. My favorite type of research work so far is field work! Nothing beats getting to actually measure the things you learn about in class!”

Smith is part of the BLISS (Find out more about OU-BLISS here: BLISS) research group, which always helps and assists her work. Her coauthors were Petra Klein, Evgeni Fedorovich, and Jeremy Gibbs. Dave Turner and Josh Gebauer were also helpful with the work.

This year, The AMS Annual Meeting was held in Seattle, WA. The cloudy west coast town saw many first-time visitors for the conference, including Smith.

“This was my first time to Seattle. The weather was so beautiful during AMS, I loved the views. And the chowder wasn’t half bad!”

Smith hopes to one day soon become a professor. She encourages everyone who presents to remember that you, the presenter, are the expert when it comes to your work.

“I love to learn as much as I love the weather, so continuing my education was a natural choice for me. I hope to one day be able to continue this exchange of knowledge as a professor. Presentations can be intimidating to students, but the important thing to remember is that you are the best expert on your work!”

Congratulations Elizabeth! The School is so proud of you!