NCAR Scientist Vanda Grubišic Speaks Friday, Sept. 27 at Utah State

Utah State University welcomes renowned scientist Vanda Grubišic of the Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research to campus Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, for the public presentation, “NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory and the University Community Opportunities for Collaboration.” All are invited to the talk at 9:30 a.m. in Huntsman Hall, Room 260.

“It’s truly a privilege to welcome Dr. Grubišic, one of my long-time colleagues, to campus,” says Maura Hagan, dean of USU’s College of Science and professor in the Department of Physics. “She’s a pioneer in the field of atmospheric dynamics and oversees the end-to-end observational science enterprise at NCAR, including a complex suite of ground-based instruments and airborne platforms for environmental research, as well as their deployment for national and international field campaigns. With her talk, she’ll share opportunities NCAR offers for interdisciplinary research collaboration with students and faculty.”

Grubišic is a senior scientist at NCAR and has served as director of the center’s Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) since 2011. A specialist in mesoscale atmospheric dynamics, she has personally led several major field campaigns, using research aircraft, focusing on such meteorological phenomena as mountain lee waves and rotors, atmospheric wakes and orographic precipitation.

Grubišic was lead principal investigator for the 2006 Terrain-induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX), a large international field campaign that marked the first official field deployment for the National Science Foundation and NCAR Gulfstream-V High-Performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (GV HAIPER) aircraft. The cutting-edge, flying observational platform serves researchers from multiple disciplines and institutions, who study different aspects of the earth’s environment, including atmospheric chemistry and climate, chemical cycles, clouds and aerosols, solar and terrestrial radiative fluxes, upper atmospheric processes, mountain waves, air quality and more.

“We invite scientists, engineers and pilots from throughout campus to hear about Dr. Grubišic’s exciting, interdisciplinary research efforts and to learn about possible collaborative opportunities,” Hagan says.

A native of Croatia, Grubišic earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and meteorology from the University of Zagreb in 1987. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees in atmospheric sciences from Yale University in 1992 and 1995, before beginning her research career as an Advanced Study Program Postdoctoral Fellow at NCAR. 

In 2009, Grubišic became a Full Professor of Theoretical Meteorology at the University of Vienna in Austria – the first woman to be appointed a full professor of any geoscience discipline in the more than 600-year history of that institution. In 2018, she served as the interim director of NCAR.

Grubišic is a Corresponding Member of the Croatian Academy of Science and Arts, a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and an Honorary Member of the Croatian Society of Natural Sciences. Her many awards include the UCAR Outstanding Publication Award (2015) and the Spiridion Brusina Medal of the Croatian Society of Natural Sciences (2015).

A USU “Year of the Woman” event, Grubišic’s USU visit is hosted by the College of Science, the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, as well as the College of Engineering.