Past Cicerone Program Fellows

Now: PhD Candidate at Purdue University
University: Purdue University
Host: Benjamin Gaubert
Project: Shuo worked on implementing interactive methane simulations in the NSF NCAR Community Earth System Model (CESM), a key new development for numerical modeling to accurately model atmospheric chemistry feedbacks.
2026 Seminar: Controls of Methane (CH4) Lifetime: The Roles of Meteorology, Wetlands, and Atmospheric Chemistry

Now: PhD Candidate at University of Wisconsin-Madison 
University: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Host: Wenfu Tang, Gabi Pfister (co-mentor)
Project: Implementing tropical peat emissions into the Fire Inventory from NCAR (FINN) and using in CESM with regional refinement.
2025 Seminar: Air quality impacts of Maritime Continent fires using MUSICAv0 with peat implementation in FINNv2.5

Now: Postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Germany
University: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan
Host: Louisa Emmons
Project: During her fellowship, Nori used the multi-scale model MUSICAv0 to simulate air quality over Michigan at 7km horizontal resolution. She used these model results in combination with a field campaign, Michigan-Ontario Ozone Source Experiment (MOOSE), held in the summers of 2021 and 2022, to better understand the local scale impacts of ozone production and loss. Her research addressed the scientific questions for southeast Michigan: (a) is the physical and chemical complexity of a model better represented through finer horizontal grid resolutions compared to observations (e.g., campaign, satellite observations), (b) what factors are driving O3 exceedances and (c) what scenarios are optimal for reaching attainment for O3.

Now: Environmental Engineer, Air Quality Division, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy
University: Wayne State University
Host: Simone Tilmes
Project: Halima used NSF NCAR’s CESM model simulations to intercompare three commonly used emissions inventories (CAMS, CEDS and ECLIPSE) as part of her project, Impact of Anthropogenic Emissions Estimates on Air Quality and Human Health Effects. She presented this project at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2023, where she received the AGU Outstanding Student Presentation Award (OSPA). Halima graduated with phd from Wayne State and currently serves as a Co‑Chair of the GeoHealth Early Career Researcher Committee and works as an Environmental Engineer in the Air Quality Division at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).

Now: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla
University: University of Arizona
Host: Mary Barth
Project: 

Now: Scientist at ACOM
University: University of Iowa 
Host: Simone Tilmes
Project: Behrooz, a PhD student at the University of Iowa (2017-2022), was the inaugural Ralph Cicerone Fellow in 2020-2021. Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Behrooz's visit was virtual. He worked on the NSF NCAR CESM variable resolution model (i.e., MUSICAv0) simulations, developed a high resolution variable model over India, and compared the MUSICAv0 air quality results against WRF-Chem simulations. Results of this work were presented in two presentations at AGU (New Orleans) and AMS (online) conferences in 2021. Meanwhile, he developed chemical budget calculation code in Python. An improved versatile version of this code is now available to the community as part of the CESM diagnostics framework (ADF). Upon graduation, Behrooz joined ACOM first as a postdoctoral fellow and then as a scientist.