your website name here

Interested in joining our group?

Potential and current graduate students at CU-Boulder may contact Prof. Lundquist with questions and ideas.

Undergraduates interested in exciting research projects are also encouraged to contact Julie with questions and ideas. Funding could be available through a UROP. Undergraduates may also consider Science Undergraduate Laboratory Interships at the DOE laboratories with whom we collaborate.



Group Dinner at the AMS Boundary Layers and Turbulence meeting, June 2018

Group picture 2018 JuneGroup dinner 2018 Jun

left to right: Camden, Patrick, Julie, Jessica, Stephanie, Robert, Nicola, Laura, Philipp


Current Graduate Students



Rachel Robey picRachel Robey Ph.D. Student in Applied Math, B.S. Applied Math University of Colorado Boulder. Rachel is building a virtual lidar simulator for WRF-LES to better understand flow over complex terrain, focusing on data from the Perdigão 2017 field campaign. Her research is supported by the DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. She joined the group after working with ocean surface boundary layers during a post-bac appointment at Los Alamos National Lab (LANL). In her free time, she enjoys climbing, whitewater kayaking, and  adventuring in the mountains.



Alex RybchukAlex Rybchuk Ph.D. Student in Mechanical Engineering co-advised by Prof. Greg Rieker, B.E. Mechanical Engineering Cooper Union. Alex models the impact of energy infrastructure on the atmospheric boundary layer. He has evaluated the ability of WRF-LES to accurately simulation emissions from natural gas infrastructure (Rybchuk et al. 2021a), and he has used these simulations to characterize monitoring systems. He has also used WRF to build wind resource assessment databases for offshore wind (Rybchuk et al. 2021b). He is currently working on WRF's wind farm models to improve their interaction with planetary boundary layer schemes. Outside of work, you can find Alex slacklining or rojacck climbing in Boulder Canyon.


Miguel SanchezMiguel Sanchez Gomez Ph.D. Student in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, M.S. Mechanical Engineering 2019, University of Colorado Boulder. Miguel is interested in the technological and resource assessment aspects of renewable energies, primarily from wind energy. He has assessed how wind veer affects wind turbine power production in the CWEX-13 dataset (Sanchez Gomez and Lundquist 2020a, 2020b), and is now using WRF-LES to assess upwind blockage effects from wind farms. In his free time, he enjoys mountain biking and backpacking.

Dave RosencransDave Rosencrans Ph.D Student in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, B.A. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences University of Colorado at Boulder, 2020.  Dave is employing mesoscale modeling with the WRF Wind Farm Parameterization (WFP) to assess the potential wind resource offshore of the US East Coast.  In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis.


Dave RosencransAndrew Kumler (he/him/his) Ph.D. Student in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, M.S. Atmospheric Sciences University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, B.S. (Double Major: Earth Systems, Environment, and Society; Atmospheric Sciences) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Andrew is currently a research scientist at NREL, focusing on wind and solar resource assessment and forecasting. For his Ph.D., he will be exploring various forecasting techniques for on and offshore wind energy, from numerical weather prediction (NWP) to ensemble methods incorporating statistical and machine learning tools. He is also interested in the climate aspect of wind energy, and how large physical systems such as the atmosphere and ocean will interact in the future to change the available wind resource. In his free time, he is an athlete on the Boulder Racing triathlon team, competing in a variety of local and international races.

Andrew MetzAndrew Metz Ph.D. Student in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, B.S. Mechanical Engineering 2019, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Andrew is interested in the behavior of wildfire smoke, using WRF-Fire. Andrew is also interested in resource analysis for wind and solar energy. Free time finds him trail running and playing baroque continuo.




Camden PlunkettCamden Plunkett Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, B.S. Applied Meteorology, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University 2017. Camden is using WFIP2 lidar observations to compare evaluate formations for wind speed in the wind turbine rotor layer. In summer 2018, he deployed our lidars to support the ISARRA LASPE-RATE unmanned aerial system field campaign in southern Colorado.




Nathan smilingNathan Agarwal Ph.D. Student in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, B.A. Physics, Colorado College. Nathan explores questions around how large-eddy simulations and mesoscale modeling can improve the description of complex flow patterns around offshore wind turbines. Prior to joining the Lundquist group, Nathan served as a technical resource for a renewable development company, driving different power systems, energy market, and resource assessment analyses. In his free time, he loves to backpack, practice martial arts, and play the piano.


Joey at Grand CanyonJoey Taylor PhD student in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. B.S. in Physics, Astronomy from University of Maryland, 2020. Joey is interested in wildfire spread dynamics such as spot fires generated by lofted embers. His research is supported by the DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. In his free time, Joey enjoys hiking, playing basketball, listening to music, cooking, and hitting the road.


Current Undergraduate Students

anne in the snow
Anne Nguyen B.S. University of Colorado Boulder, Aerospace Engineering, expected 2024. Anne is investigating the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in the nocturnal stable boundary layer and how it might affect wind turbines. In her free time, she enjoys playing video games, and exploring new places with friends and family.





Sean ButtersSean Butters B.A. University of Colorado Boulder, Environmental Studies, minor in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, expected 2022. Sean is comparing the performance of WRF Numerical Weather Prediction modeling versus ERA5 reanalysis against measured data from lidars to investigate the differences between these methods for characterization of wind resources in complex terrain. He also is interested in the science-policy interface related to renewable energy and the evolution of global energy systems. Sean is a triathlete and a member of the CU Swim Team and spends his free time cooking and exploring the outdoors.


Jacob Silverstein
Jacob Anthony Silverstein B.S. University of Colorado Boulder, Environmental Studies, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, expected 2021. Jacob is investigating how wind turbine wakes behave under differing atmospheric conditions using LIDAR data from the National Wind Technology Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). With a mathematics and environmental solutions background, he is interested in both the physical characteristics of energy production as well as the political and economic aspects of renewable energy. In his free time, Jacob enjoys skiing, recording music, and cooking.


Alumni

Ph.D. Alumni

Stephanie Redfern uncroppedStephanie Redfern
Ph.D. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 2021, M.S. Civil & Environmental Engineering Stanford University, M.A. Global Policy Studies University of Texas Austin, B.S. Mechanical Engineering University of Texas Austin. Stephanie has implemented and evaluated improvements to the WRF Wind Farm Parameterization (MWR 2019) as a graduate research fellow at CIRES and applied WRF-FIRE to simulating wildland and urban fires. In the summer of 2018 she worked on the WE-CAN field campaign in Boise, ID, taking aircraft-based aerosol measurements above wildfires. Dr. Redfern is now a postdoctoral researcher position in offshore wind energy at NREL's Flatirons Campus.



Jessica @ DLR Nov 2018Jessica Tomaszewski
Ph.D. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 2020, M.S. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 2018, B.S. Meteorology University of Oklahoma. Jessica has used large-eddy simulations of wind turbine wakes to demonstrate that wind turbine wakes do not pose hazards to small aircraft (WES2018). She has also used mesoscale modeling to evaluate interactions between wind farms (NE2018, AMS talk) and defined optimal settings for simulating wind farms in WRF (GMD 2020) and showed how wind farms affect weather events like thunderstorm outflow (WES 2020). During the Perdigão field campaign, she collected data and provided real-time plots of our lidar data to help make in-the-field decisions. During summers 2018 and 2019, she was a wind resource assessment intern at NextEra. Dr. Tomaszewski is now a wind energy research scientist at REsurety.

Nicola Bodini photoNicola Bodini
Ph.D. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 2019, M.Eng. University of Trento, Environmental and Land Engineering, B.Eng. University of Trento, Environmental and Land Engineering. Nicola is studying turbulence dissipation rate measurements from lidars (AMT2018) in complex terrain (ACP2019) and offshore (GRL2019). He has applied machine learning methods to better represent turbulence in atmospheric models. He has also used scanning lidar data to characterize wind turbine wakes (AMT2017), and has assessed interannual variability in wind resource assessment (WES2016).  He helped collect data during the Perdigão field campaign. Dr. Bodini is now a staff scientist in wind energy at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Flatirons Campus after a short postdoctoral appointment at NREL.

Laura MazzaroLaura Mazzaro
Ph.D. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 2019; M.S. Environmental Engineering University of California Berkeley, B.S. Engineering Mechanics University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Laura has studied methods for improving atmospheric simulations by coupling mesoscale and large-eddy simulation models (JAMES2017) and for generating turbulence within nested large-eddy simulations using perturbation methods. Laura collected data during the Perdigão field campaign. Dr. Mazzaro is now an Applied Scientist at Descartes Labs.



Rochelle WorsnopRochelle Worsnop 
Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, 2018; M.S. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, 2016, B.S. in Meteorology from Florida State University with minors in Mathematics and Geography. Rochelle used large-eddy simulations to study turbulence in hurricanes with applications to offshore wind energy (BLM2017, GRL2017), and then focused on how to improve statistical forecasts of wind energy ramping events (WES 2018). While at CU, Rochelle helped collect data for the CWEX-13, XPIA, and WFIP2 field campaigns. Dr. Worsnop is now a Research Scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Lab in Boulder, through the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.


Joseph LeeJoseph Cheuk-Yi Lee
Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, 2018; B.S. Cornell University in Atmospheric Sciences with minor in Applied Economics. Joseph evaluated how the evening transition of the atmospheric boundary layer affect wind turbine wakes (BLM 2017) and then tested how well a mesoscale wind farm parameterization captured actual power production in an onshore wind farm (GMD 2017). He then focused on evaluating how interannual variability is considered in wind resource assessment (WES 2018, Torque2018). During summer 2016, he was an intern at GE. While at CU, Joseph helped collect data in the LUMEX, XPIA, and WFIP2 field campaigns. Dr. Lee is now a scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory after a postdoctoral position at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's National Wind Technology Center.

Clara St. MartinClara St. Martin
Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, 2017; B.S. The Pennsylvania State University in Meteorology with minor in Energy Engineering: Clara has studied atmosphere - wind energy interactions on a range of scales. She studied continental-scale correlations of winds and power production (ERL 2015). She assessed the relationship between upwind measurements of winds and the measurements on turbine nacelles (WES 2017), as well as atmospheric stability and atmospheric turbulence impacts on power production (WES 2016). During summers 2015 and 2016 she was an intern at GE Renewable Energy. While at CU, Clara was the lead forecaster for the TODS campaign and helped collect data in the CWEX-13, LUMEX, XPIA, and WFIP2 field campaigns. Dr. St. Martin is now a wind resource assessment engineer at GE.

Brian VanderwendeBrian Vanderwende
Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, 2015; M.S. University of Colorado at Boulder in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, B.S.  The Pennsylvania State University in Meteorology: Brian has quantified atmospheric stability impacts on wind turbine power production (ERL 2012), assessed if wind turbine power production is related to nearby crops (BLM 2016),  assessed lidar obsevations and mesoscale simulations of nocturnal low-level jet behavior in the midwest (MWR 2015), and employed large-eddy simulations to test mesoscale wind farm parameterizations (JAMES 2016).  Dr. Vanderwende now works at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in scientific computing.

Matt AitkenMatt Aitken
Ph.D. Physics CU Boulder, 2014; M.S. North Carolina State University in Aerospace Engineering, B.S. University of North Carolina in Physics: Matt studied wind turbine wakes via Doppler lidar observations and large eddy simulations. He has characterized the performance of lidars (JTech 2012), developed approaches for quantifying wake characteristics from scanning lidar and CFD models (JTech 2014), quantified wakes from nacelle-based lidar (JTech 2014b), and compared observations to large eddy simulations of a turbine with a generalized actuator disk model (JRSE 2014) to observations. After a postdoctoral research position at the Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Aitken is now a fellow at the Croatan Institute.

M.S. Alumni
Michael Rhodes
Michael Rhodes,
M.S. University of Colorado at Boulder, Aerospace Engineering, B.S. North Carolina State University, Aerospace Engineering: Michael used Doppler lidar to quantify the wind speed deficit and turbulence enhancement of a turbine wake during the CWEX-11 experiment (BLM 2013), and continued to work with our instruments during the TODS, CWEX-13, and LUMEX campaigns. After working  at NOAA's Earth Systems Research Laboratory in Boulder, Mike is currently the laboratory manager at RECUV at CU Boulder working with drone for atmospheric measurements.

Undergraduate Alumni

Hannah imageHannah Livingston 
B.S. University of Colorado Boulder, Mechanical and Energy Engineering, 2021. Hannah investigated how system of interconnected offshore wind farms off the shore of Massachusetts could provide baseline power for New England toward the interest of determining the viability of a macrogrid (Livingston & Lundquist 2020). With an engineering background, she is interested in both the technical aspects as well as the economic and societal impacts arising from rapid renewable energy transitions. In her free time, Hannah enjoys trail running, backpacking, and training for triathlons.




Hannah imageVincent Pronk 
B.S. University of Colorado Boulder, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, 2020. Vincent quantified model skill for high resolution WRF simulations at the Southern Great Plains site in Oklahoma. After graduating, he moved to a SULI internship at NREL. In his free time, he enjoys hiking and playing soccer.





MadisonMadison Shogrin
B.A. University of Colorado Boulder, Environmental Studies, 2020, with minors in ATOC and Geography. Building on her internship at JPL studying quantifying water vapor in the planetary boundary layer using combined data from OCO-2 and AIRS using ARM SGP products, Madison completed an honors thesis broadening validation regions/datasets using IGRA and others. In her free time, she likes to snowboard and hike. In Fall 2020, she  joined Emily Fischer's group at Colorado State University.

James Bell photoJames Bell
B.A. University of Colorado Boulder, Geography with a minor in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, 2020. James investigated mountain waves using lidar and turbine measurements from the WFIP2 field campaign. In his free time, he enjoys photography, skateboarding and hiking In the mountains.


Patrick Murphy
Patrick Murphy
B.A. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, 2018. Patrick joined our group in spring 2017, just in time to join the Perdigão field campaign. After returning to Boulder, he analyzed lidar and surface station data to characterize wind turbine wakes. In summer 2018, he deployed our lidars to support the ISARRA LASPE-RATE unmanned aerial system field campaign in southern Colorado. After an internship at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory analyzing atmospheric measurements for a wake steering field campaign, Patrick has started a PhD in atmospheric science at the University of Washington.

Rachel Robey picRachel Robey
B.S. University of Colorado at Boulder, Applied Math and Computer Science, 2017. Rachel explored the interaction of hurricanes and offshore wind farms using mesoscale models. In her spare time, Rachel is an avid climber and whitewater kayaker. After a few years as a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the ocean modeling group, she has returned to CU Boulder at a PhD student in the Lundquist group (see above!).




Jiwan RanaJiwan Rana
B.S. University of Colorado at Boulder, Computer Science, 2015: Jiwan used python and NCL to provide insight into the atmospheric boundary layer datasets collected by our research group. (Check out his CWEX-13 data page!) He is interested in scientific visualization, parallel computing, and machine learning. In his free time, he enjoys hiking and photography, and spending time with his electric guitar.

Daniel Pollak
Daniel Pollak
M.S.  European Wind Energy Master's Program, 2014; B.S. The Pennsylvania State University, Meteorology, 2011: Daniel evaluated the performance of a SODAR instrument during the TWICS-2011 experiment in summer 2011 and carried out simulations of an offshore wind farm in summer 2012. He is now an Associate at REsurety, Inc., working on Valuation & Risk Analytics.

Kelley Hestmark Kelley Hestmark
B.S. University of Colorado at Boulder, Biochemistry and Environmental Engineering: During her summer undergraduate research experience in our group in 2012, Kelley analyzed Doppler lidar data from the TWICS-2011 experiment (JTech 2014). Kelley started graduate school at UC Davis in Fall 2014, and is now a technician at NREL's National Bioenergy Center working on bioplastics.



Visitors

Philipp GaschPhilipp Gasch
Ph.D. 2021 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), M.Sc., KIT, Meteorology, 2016; M.A., Tel Aviv University, Environmental Studies, 2014. Philipp built a simulator in large-eddy simulation codes for airborne lidar measurements of boundary-layer winds to provide uncertainty quantification for those measurements (AMT 2020). Philipp visited our group in Spring 2018.

Robert MenkeRobert Menke
Ph.D. 2020 Danish Technical University, M.S. Engineering Physics University of Oldenburg, B. Eng. Engineering Physics University of Oldenburg. Robert managed several of DTU's scanning lidars during the Perdigao field campaign, and has used those data to characterize wind turbine wakes (WES2018) and investigate recirculation zones in the Perdigao valley (ACP2019). Robert visited our group Jan-Jul 2018 and NCAR in 2019. After graduation, Dr. Menke joined the wind energy industry.


Simon SiederslebenSimon Siedersleben
Ph.D. 2019 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Simon is interested in offshore wind farm wakes and participated in the WIPAFF experiment to measure wakes (NSR2018), and he has carried out simulations of those wakes with the WRF wind farm parameterization to assess wind speed deficit predictions (MZ2018) as well as local temperature and moisture impacts (ERL2018) and turbulence kinetic energy changes (GMD2020). Simon visited our group in Fall 2017.



Mihael PlutMihael Plut
M.S. 2016 European Wind Energy Master's Program. Mihael assessed methods for representing wind farms in WRF. After serving as Lead Performance Engineer at GE Renewables in Barcelona, he is now a project manager at Siemens Gamesa in Copenhagen. Mihael visited our group Jan-Jul 2016.




Nicola BodiniNicola Bodini
M.S.. 2016 University of Trento Environmental and Land Engineering. Nicola used scanning lidar data to characterize wind turbine wakes (AMT2017) in summer-fall 2016, and interannual variability in wind resource assessment (WES2016) when he visited our research group in summer 2015, and then returned for his PhD (see above).




CWEXWakesVollmeretal2017 Lukas Vollmer
Ph.D. 2019 ForWind, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universitat Oldenburg. Lukas uses large-eddy simulations to explore the behavior of wind turbine wakes, and used data from the CWEX-11 field campaign for his large-eddy simulations of wakes in a range of stability conditions (Visby2017). He visited our group in Fall of 2015.


Ken Tay: cartwheel at CWEX-13 Ken Tay
Ph.D. 2018 Nanyang Technological University, B.Eng (Aero).  Nanyang Technological University in Aerospace Engineering: Ken nested Large-Eddy Simulation techniques within mesoscale weather models for the purpose of improving wind resource assessment. Ken visited CU-Boulder in May-June 2013 and again May 2014 - March 2015.

Gao XiaoxiaGao Xiaoxia
Ph.D Building Service Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, M.S. Hebei University of Enginnering in HVAC, B.S Yanshan University: Gao has studied offshore wind resource assessment near Hong Kong. She quantified wind turbine wake characteristics from the CWEX-13 field campaign. Gao visited CU-Boulder in Apr-Jul 2014.



Emil Hedevang Lohse Sørensen
Aarhus University, visitor Spring 2012

Martin de Mare
Danish Technological University, visitor Spring 2012