Note: Unless otherwise noted, all emails are AOS departmental emails which end in @atmos.ucla.edu
	Name: Sergio Abarca Email: abarcas Website: will be available on mid December.
About me: I come from Mexico. I was raised in Xalapa a cute city in the state of Veracruz. I also lived in Mexico City, a fascinating vibrant monster. I moved to LA to study the PhD in 2005 and, believe it or not, in this city I really like my apartment and my neighborhood (miracle mile). I love taking walks around here, a historic (for LA standards) neighborhood with a few museums, 2 parks, a farmers market, 3 groceries stores, few banks, lots of restaurants all in a walking distance! It is amazing! Not to mention that I use *convenient* (spend ~45min each way from door to door) public transportation to get to the beautiful UCLA campus. Research: My main research interests are in tropical deep convection. How it develops? What processes determine its characteristics? I am currently studying the so-called "Wind Regimes" in Southwestern Amazon. More on this soon.
Name: Calvin Liang Email: cliang Website: Will come @ some point in my PhD career...
About me: Well, I have been in Southern California my whole life. I was born in Monterey Park, which is the China Town of the United States in my opinion, lived there basically until I got married on March 26, 2005. I got my degree in Physics from Occidental College, then went off to a tech company called TRW to work on a weather satellite program called NPOESS (look it up if you don't know what NPOESS is). Now our company is called NGST and I am currently on-leave to attend UCLA. Okay, now to the juicy stuff. I love playing my guitar as often as I have time for. When I'm not playing I'm either enjoying a great episode of House (on Fox 11 on Tuesday's @ 9pm), watching reruns of Naruto (Japanimation), obviously doing some research (more explanation to come), or spending time with my lovely wife Judy Hung Liang. If you want to know more about me just come and ask. :-D Research: I am primarily interested in studying the role of cirrus clouds on climate. More specifically, I am interested in what satellite data can tell us about their dynamical and thermodynamical structure, microphysical propeties, and how the aforementioned are related to each other on a global scale. Currently I work with Kuo Nan Liou (UCLA Advisor), Annmaire Eldering (JPL Advisor), and Brian Kahn (JPL) specifically looking at the microphysical and thermodynamical structure of thin cirrus in the tropics as interpreted by the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS), Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), and the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS).
	Name: Louise Nuijens Email: lnuyens Website: www.atmos.ucla.edu/~lnuyens
About me: I come from the Netherlands, a very rainy country, where I studied meteorology and air quality. Part of the reason that I enjoy living in Los Angeles is the weather, and that I don't have to worry in the mornings about bringing a raincoat or not when biking to school. I love to read, to cook and bake and go for a run or bike ride outside, near the beach or close to my apartment, which is near West LA and Santa Monica. Research: My major interests are in clouds and boundary layer processes. Currently I work with my advisor, Bjorn Stevens, on observations of shallow maritime precipitating cumuli in the subtropical trade wind regions, using mostly ground-based radar and sounding data from the RICO field campaign. See my webpage for more details!
Name: Justin Lee Email: justinl Website: www.atmos.ucla.edu/~justinl
I close my eyes briefly. I awake to the sound of my alarm. After finishing the necessary tasks, I find myself in my car. The freeway onramp's red light allows me to breathe deeply for a moment. Green. The speeds climb steadily as I smoothly work myself into early morning traffic. 24 minutes and 37 seconds later, the security guard waves me into the parking lot as he catches a glimpse of my Starbucks card. I promise myself again that one day I will show him the correct piece of plastic. Work is fascinating when you're doing research. Modeling auroral microphysics based on sounding rocket and satellite data isn't something you hear about everyday, unless, of course, you're me. I meet with Jim Clemmons to discuss our progress and he gives me pointers on what to look at. I return to my desk and sort through some data. Several hours pass before I'm interrupted by one of my seniors knocking on the door. Lunch. A few of us get together to converse about current events over food. Afterwards it's time again for me to hit the road. We learn about the Bowen Ratio in class today. Time goes by quickly and I briefly organize the lecture in my head. I stay late to go over homework with some of my peers. We wrap up around 5:00pm. On my way out I bump into Larry Lyons. I give him an update on school and work at The Aerospace Corporation. He remarks that I'm living lives in two places. We chat a bit; he reminds me to breathe and that I am still starting out. I smile as we part ways. I exit Structure 7 and turn onto Sunset while popping in a CD. 4 tracks later I downshift into 2nd and hook a right into the canyon. Home is only 2 miles away from here. As I hear my car's exhaust note climb, I long for the next trip I can make to the racetrack. The road straightens. I upshift and exhale. The sound of the garage door closing signals my return home. My chinchilla happily leaps from his ledge and I hand him a snack. Dinner is leftover food I grilled over the weekend. I finish up homework after dinner and find myself in front of the piano. The keys are cold to the touch, my fingers taking a few minutes to warm up. Music of Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt sequentially fills the living room. 11:00pm. I sit down at my desk and sort through e-mail. I receive an instant message from my cousin. He says he just finished lunch with his buddies. They're 15 hours ahead of our time. I tell him I'm going to sleep. I shut down the computer and lie down in bed. I close my eyes briefly. I awake to the sound of my alarm.
	Name: Sarah Kapnick Email: skapnick Website:
About me: I grew up in the Chicago area and attended Princeton University for my undergraduate degree. As an undergraduate, I majored in Mathematics and wrote my undergraduate thesis under the guidance of a Geosciences professor and some researchers from the GFDL. They helped convert me from a mathematician to an earth scientist. Unsure of my ultimate career goals, I took a break from academia between college and graduate school to work on Wall Street. After two years of financial modeling in New York City, I happily moved to Los Angeles to pursue my PhD and experience sunny California. Research: My main interests relate to climate modeling, both on the regional and global scales. I am currently studying California regional climate change and high latitude climate variability under the guidance of Dr. Alex Hall.
Name: Chiara Antoniazzi Email: chiara78 Website:
About me: I came from Italy in January as a visiting scholar at UCLA. UCLA has given me this great opportunity to collaborate for these months. I'm here with my husband who moved over for his job. We have been looking for a sunny place....and here we are!! The campus is beautiful and LA is wonderful. If I could go back in time, I'd look for a PhD here! I graduated in Physics in 2003 at the State University of Milan, Italy. During my thesis I studied the environmental pollution and the characterization of PM1 and PM2.5 in Milan. Since 2004 I have been working as a meteorologist for the northern Italy at the Lombardia Regional Meteorological Service. Our products are used by Regional and National Civil Protection as well as by public authorities, e.g. in the sectors of transports, agriculture and media. Research: Currently I work with prof. Bjorn Stevens on analyzing data from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO)
	Name: Junhong Liang Email: liangjh Website:
About me: I come from Guangzhou, China. I studied Civil Engineering before I came here. I felt that I enjoyed the elegance in science more and that's why I decided to get a PhD degree here. Los Angeles is a big city with a lot of entertainments and diverse culture. It is a good place for international student. I only need to drive thirty minutes when I crave for Chinese food. The weather here is mild and I enjoy playing basketball and tennis under the sunshine. Research: I am now working for Prof. James McWilliams. My current work is to better understand the dynamics of northeastern tropical Pacific combining satellite data and numerical solutions.
Name: Ka Yee Wang Email: kayee Website:
About me: I come from Hong Kong, a beautiful city in the southern part of China. Weather is warmer and more humid than in LA in the summer, dryer than LA in the winter. We also have very dynamic weather in Hong Kong every year, such as monsoon seasons and typhoons (we call them hurricanes in North Atlantic Ocean, Northeast Pacific Ocean east of International Dateline, and the South Pacific Ocean east of 160°E). I chose atmospheric science to be my major because I love to look at the sky since I was a little girl. At that time I wondered why sometimes the sky cries; why did some cotton hang in the sky. While growing up, I encountered typhoons every summer in Hong Kong. I was so fascinated by the hurricane phenomenon. I came to LA in 2000 to achieve my dream of studying hurricanes. I transferred to UCLA in 2003 in my junior year, and I started my Master's degree in Atmospheric Sciences in 2005. I like sports, especially basketball. Even though my graduate school life is very busy, I still try to keep playing basketball with my friends in our department every Saturday morning. Waking up early and working late until midnight has become my lifestyle. I enjoy the midnight dinner while I'm watching my favorite TV shows (Stargate: SG-1 & Atlantis, Law & Order, etc.) every night. Research: I'm working on hurricane track simulations using the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model with Professor Robert Fovell. The goal is to determine how cloud microphysics affects the track of hurricanes in a simplified environment (no land).