Meteorology Freshman Tyler Stanfield Recognized for Research Work

 

Tyler Stanfield, a freshman meteorology major, was awarded a Mentored Research Fund Award ($1000) from the Office of Undergraduate Research for Spring 2017 to work on Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) spatial variability with Dr. Elinor Martin.

“I was honored to have received this fund for undergraduate research and I truly can’t thank the Office of Undergraduate Research enough!” Stanfield said. This was his first time applying for undergraduate research and was unsure if he would be notified of whether or not he received the award. “I was happily surprised when I received the email notifying me of it.”

Stanfield’s research, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation or AMO, is climate based research, which takes a deeper look on how they currently measure the AMO. “We will be using multiple sea surface temperature datasets from the North Atlantic Ocean to construct the multiple known AMO indices ourselves via coding in python.” he said. “The project involves a minimal amount of equipment as the majority of the work will be done on a computer.”

Stanfield’s interest in meteorology started at a young age. “I was interested in meteorology since I was in third grade where I first learned about tornadoes,” he said. “As I grew up, I ventured away from tornadoes and focused more of my interest on tropical cyclones.”, he said.

His focus on tropical cyclones was the first time he took a look at climate observations, which drove his interest in climate research. “I believe climate research is beneficial because bettering our knowledge of our planet’s climate, past and future, will improve our ability to anticipate weather and climate shifts.”

His decision to attend the University of Oklahoma was because he believes there’s a wide variety of opportunities from research to internships. “A position I am in today, doing research as a freshman, was the exact reason I envision my future best at the University of Oklahoma,” he said.

In the future he hopes to research a wide variety of topics from winter storms to tropical cyclones. His long term goals include attending grad school and accepting a position in either the National Hurricane Center of Tropical Analysis and Forecasting Branch.