Announcements
New Faculty
Dr. Katelyn Barber (Assistant Professor) and Dr. Christopher Phillips (Visiting Assistant Professor) joined the department in August 2024.
Promotion
Dr. Kevin Goebbert was appointed Assistant Provost at Valparaiso University.
Retirement
Dr. Bart Wolf, who was instrumental in growing the Meteorology program at Valpo, retired after 31 years of service. The weather center in Kallay-Christopher Hall was dedicated to Bart, and a celebratory event was held during Homecoming and Family Weekend of 2024. Alumni of the Meteorology program are raising funds to help continue these unparalleled field experiences for our students.
Edward N. Lorenz Teaching Excellence Award
Dr. Teresa Bals-Elsholz, has been awarded the 2024 Edward N. Lorenz Teaching Excellence Award from the American Meteorological Society. She was chosen, “For innovative and engaging teaching, making challenging curricula accessible and enjoyable, enthusiastic career-long mentoring, and inspiring the next generation of atmospheric scientists, especially empowering women”.
VUAA Distinguished Teaching Award
Dr. Kevin Goebbert, Associate Professor of Meteorology was awarded the Valparaiso University Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award for 2022.
Valparaiso Excellence in Teaching finalist
Dr. Jon-Paul McCool, Assistant Professor of Geography was a finalist for the Valparaiso University Excellence in Teaching Award.
MVC Scholar-Athlete Team
Eric Carothers, ’23, meteorology major and Valparaiso University men’s cross country sophomore Eric Carothers (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) received recognition for his success in competition and in the classroom as he was named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team. Carothers received the honor based on his strong GPA and high finish in the MVC Cross Country Championships on March 3, 2021 in Evansville, Indiana. He led the Valpo men with a 10th-place finish in the event, earning First Team All-MVC Honors in the process.
Fullbright Semi-finalist 2021
Jenna Johnston, ’21, Christ College Scholar with majors in environmental science and biology and minors in geography and Spanish, is a Fulbright semi-finalist for an English Teaching Assistantship to Costa Rica.
News
Digging for Answers
Meteorology students in Professor Craig Clark’s Research Topics class have benefited from Valpo’s inimitable weather patterns. In fall 2013 the class spent an entire semester studying a weather phenomenon Northwest Indiana knows well: lake-effect snow. “Lake-effect snow tends to form in several different categories,” says Andrew Vande Guchte ’14, one of Professor Clark’s students. “One of these is a bunch of small little bands that come across the lake from west to east. Another category is a large, single band that goes along the west coast of Michigan. Then there’s the band that goes directly down the middle of the lake, and…
A Perfect Place for Learning
Long before Valparaiso University existed, weather was already shaping life on campus. “We are on a terminal moraine, which means when the glaciers formed, they worked their way to Valpo and stopped,” says Grace Roman ’17, a geography major. “The melting ice deposited till, debris, and rocks and made a nice big hill,” she explains. During the ice age, wind and sunlight converged to create an atmosphere perfect for budding geographers. In addition to Valpo’s location on a terminal moraine, the Chapel of the Resurrection is built on a kame, a hill formed by sediment that falls through a hole…
Ready for the Storm
After their years of intense study and rigorous training in Valpo’s meteorology department, alumni Elizabeth Thompson ’10 and Gavin Roy ’10 were well prepared when they boarded a research vessel bound for the Indian Ocean. In the summer of 2011, Elizabeth Thompson ’10 and Gavin Roy ’10 accepted an opportunity to join an expedition to the Indian Ocean to study a unique and important weather phenomenon. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Energy, the project, called DYNAMO, brought together hundreds of faculty members and graduate students from 15 institutions in six countries to study the…
Whirlwind Ascent
[cws_lead]Good Morning America's Ginger Zee '02 reflects on the Valpo foundation that began her career.[/cws_lead]Ginger Zuidgeest ’02 wakes up at 4 a.m. each weekday with resolve. “Since Valpo, I’ve been on this constant mission,” she says. “One of my best friends calls me ‘The Explainer,’ and it’s true. When you’re a scientist on television, you’re an explainer. You have to take science and make it simple, while also teaching people something.” Ginger, who goes by the moniker Ginger Zee (“Zuidgeest,” she said, was too difficult for people to pronounce), is perhaps most well known for her work as the lead…
A Generous Mentor
Valpo meteorology students benefit from an ongoing relationship with one of the nation's premier broadcast meteorologists. [caption id="attachment_438" align="alignleft" width="250"] WGN forecaster Tom Skilling addresses a group at Valparaiso University[/caption] Valpo’s meteorology students have the benefit of close proximity to Chicago, the third largest television market in the country. Many Valpo students participate in internships at Chicago television stations. For the past 20 years, nearly 100 meteorology students have interned with one of the best broadcast meteorologists in the country — WGN’s veteran forecaster, Tom Skilling. Dustin Bonk ’11, a meteorologist at WILX-TV in Lansing, Mich., learned to make accurate,…
