Congratulations to Dr. Chapman – CW3E Graduate Student Successfully Defends Dissertation

November 23, 2021

The sixth CW3E PhD student has successfully defended his dissertation. Dr. Will Chapman’s defense was held on Friday, November 19, 2021. His dissertation title is “Improved Earth System Prediction with Deep Learning and Large Ensembles” and includes three chapters published in peer reviewed journals (Chapman et al., 2019, 2021a, 2021b), with an additional publication in preparation. Will’s committee members were Shang-Ping Xie and Marty Ralph (Co-Chairs), Ian Eisenman, Amato Evan, Jan Kleissl, and Aneesh Subramanian. Funding for Will’s dissertation came from FIRO and the AR Program, both under PI Marty Ralph.

Will is moving on with a joint post-doctoral appointment in Boulder Colorado, with half of his funding coming as an Advance Studies Program (ASP) post-doctoral scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and additionally working for the m²lines project on correcting CESM model biases.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, Will defended his dissertation virtually. CW3E is incredibly proud of Will’s accomplishment today and all that he has accomplished throughout his PhD. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Will throughout his graduate school career.

Dr. Chapman summarizing answers a question from the audience during his defense.

Dr. Chapman thanks his committee at the close of his defense.

Chapman, W. E., Subramanian, A. C., Delle Monache, L., Xie, S. P., & Ralph, F. M. (2019). Improving Atmospheric River Forecasts with Machine Learning. Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 10627-10635, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083662

Chapman, W. E., Delle Monache, L., Alessandrini, S., Subramanian, A. C., Ralph, F. M., Xie, S., Lerch, S., & Hayatbini, N. (2021a). Probabilistic Predictions from Deterministic Atmospheric River Forecasts with Deep Learning, Monthly Weather Review (published online ahead of print), https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-21-0106.1

Chapman, W. E., Subramanian, A. C., Xie, S., Sierks, M. D., Ralph, F. M., & Kamae, Y. (2021b). Monthly Modulations of ENSO Teleconnections: Implications for Potential Predictability in North America, Journal of Climate, 34, 5899-5921. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0391.1