Students can gain valuable experience at the Weather Program Office and have the opportunity to work on a variety of projects that cover a diverse range of weather-related topics.
AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships (STPF) provide opportunities to outstanding scientists and engineers to learn first-hand about policymaking while contributing their knowledge and analytical skills to the federal policymaking process. Fellows serve yearlong assignments in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal government in Washington. Each year, the program adds to a growing corps over 3,400 strong of policy-savvy leaders working across academia, government, nonprofits and industry to serve the nation and the world.
*Applications open June 1.
John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Program is designed to provide students enrolled in a wide variety of educational institutions, from high school to graduate level, with opportunities to work in Federal agencies and explore Public Service careers, while still in school and while getting paid for the work they are performing. Students who successfully complete the program may be eligible for conversion to a permanent job in the civil service.
*Applications are due to your state’s Sea Grant program by February 19, 2025 for the 2026 Fellowship.
The NOAA Pathways Internship Program is designed to provide students enrolled in a wide variety of educational institutions, from high school to graduate level, with opportunities to work in Federal agencies and explore Public Service careers, while still in school and while getting paid for the work they are performing. Students who successfully complete their internships may be eligible for conversion to a permanent job in the civil service.
*Opportunities are shared through USAJOBS.
The NOAA Educational Partnership Program (EPP) with Minority Serving institutions (MSI) Undergraduate Scholarship provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to study a wide range of STEM and social science disciplines related to NOAA’s mission and objectives. Appointment as an EPP/MSI scholar involves full-time study during the 9-month academic year, an 11-week internship during the first summer at NOAA headquarters in Silver Spring, MD and, if reappointed, fulltime study during a second 9-month academic year and a second 10-week summer internship.
*The Hollings and Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions (EPP/MSI) Undergraduate Scholarship applications are closed, with award notifications on April 1, 2025.
The William M. LaPenta NOAA Student Internship Program
NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) is “Where America’s Climate and Weather Services Begin.” NCEP is offering up to 20 paid summer internships targeted towards current 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate and enrolled graduate students to work in areas that will meet the future needs of the ever-broadening user community and address the strategic climate-water-weather issues. Each student will collaborate with one or more scientists at our five centers located in College Park, Maryland.
*Applications for 2026 will open on October 1, 2025.
The NOAA Weather Program Office (WPO) and UCAR’s Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS) have established the WINGS Dissertation Fellowship for Ph.D. candidates to focus their dissertation research on an area of scientific importance for the broader Weather Enterprise. The first year of the program is being piloted by the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC).
This fellowship will provide two years of funding to Ph.D. candidates in support of innovative weather and climate research and engineering projects. WINGS fellows will be UCAR employees and will receive funding for 0.5 FTE for 9 months and 1.0 FTE for 3 months including benefits (1,320 hours per year at an hourly salary range of $25.50-26.52). WINGS fellows will also receive an annual travel allowance of $5,000*.
*If the student utilizes the maximum number of hours in the fellowship, the total salary will amount to at least $33,660.
The WINGS Fellowship is designed for Ph.D. candidates who have completed their required coursework, and in the beginning stages of writing a dissertation. Fellows will work with their academic advisor and a mentor recommended by WPO and CPAESS, to provide guidance during the dissertation process.
The WINGS Fellowship will enable fellows to gain insights into their respective fields of study, support the fellows’ integration into the workforce, and offer a unique opportunity to contribute to forecast model development.
Internship season February 2021 – January 2022 Internship Affiliation Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship University Affiliation Florida State University Major Postdoc: Sociology of Science PhD: Meteorology Flashback to 2019… a few friends of mine had either just finished the Knauss Fellowship, were in the middle of their fellowship, or were busy…
Internship season Summer 2021-2022 Internship Affiliation AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow University Affiliation Arizona State University Major Postdoc: Sociology of Science PhD: Biology Tell us about your fellowship responsibilities. I work on topics related to data governance, portfolio analysis, and building computational capacity for social science within OAR. For these…
Internship season Summer 2022 Internship Affiliation 2022 William M. LaPenta Intern University Affiliation Georgia State University Major Geosciences Tell us about your internship responsibilities. My main task is the digital storytelling of findings from four major social and behavioral science projects researching tropical cyclone communication and the public, local, and…
Bio: Samantha Lang is a fourth year undergraduate student majoring in meteorology and minoring in marine science at N.C. State University. She is an intern with the NOAA William M. Lapenta student internship program as the 2024 Student Ambassador for the Unified Forecast System, working under the direction of the Earth Prediction Innovation Center team and the Weather Program Office.
Project: Samantha is working to improve the UFS Student Engagement Plan created by the previous year’s student ambassador to improve outreach between the UFS and academia/students, as well as meteorology curriculum. She is under the mentorship of Jennifer Vogt, Alison Gregory, Neil Jacobs, and Maoyi Huang.
Bio: Elizabeth Swords is a rising junior at Washington University in St. Louis, MO studying Environmental Analysis and the Business of Social Impact. Elizabeth is interested in science communication, and during the school year, works within both Washington University’s Center for the Environment and the Arts & Science Communications Department. In her free time, Elizabeth enjoys crocheting and running.
Project: Elizabeth’s project expands on previous analyses of applicants’ experiences with WPO’s funding competitions. In particular, by examining Applicant Customer Experience and Satisfaction (ACES) survey data, her project evaluated the effectiveness of changes made to WPO’s 2024 funding competition as a result of feedback received regarding WPO’s 2023 funding competition application process. Further, her project also identified gaps in the ACES survey where data on applicant experience is lacking. To address these gaps, she proposed additional ACES survey questions and developed a focus group protocol, which will help shed light on these aspects of the applicant experience.
Bio: ReneDiego “Diego” Martinez is a third-year Undergraduate student at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi, where he is majoring in Atmospheric Science and minoring in Applied Mathematics. Diego is interested in tornadic supercells, and wishes to pursue his Masters/Doctorates in Atmospheric Science with a focus on tornadoes in supercells.
Project: Diego completed his internship with the Weather Program Office in the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) as a member of the C.O 2024 Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions (EPP/MSI) Undergraduate scholar. Diego’s project focused on testing and supporting “end-to-end” proxy applications of the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) utilized with the Unified Forecast System (UFS). In the project, Diego installed and initiated a full cycling run of the GDAS application on NOAA-MSU High Performance Computing systems (HPC) with a set of test initial conditions using the Environmental Modeling Center’s global-workflow system. Additionally, Diego created a Jupyter Notebook-based tutorial for installing and running the GDAS application on NOAA-MSU HPC systems to further enhance data assimilation innovations in numerical modeling.
Bio: Isabel Lopez is a second-year PhD student at the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) studying Civil Engineering. She also received her BA in Civil Engineering from UTEP. Isabel is interested in working on hydrological models and GIS, as well as incorporating socio-economic data into her analysis.
Project: Isabel’s NERTO research project focused on assessing urban recurrent flooding in Harris County, Texas using GIS and the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI). Unlike nuisance flooding, urban recurrent flooding is influenced by dense infrastructure, varied land use, and diverse topography, making it challenging to model. The study used TWI to identify areas prone to flooding by analyzing flow direction and water accumulation. In addition, this approach was integrated with social datasets to provide insights into flood risk and its impact on vulnerable populations. Isabel plans to continue this integrated geospatial and social data approach as part of her dissertation research.
Institution: Penn State University
Major: Meteorology & Atmospheric Science
Interesting fact: I have travelled to 12 countries!
What’s something you can’t live without? My friends, family, cat, and chai tea.
Alekya will become the first student ambassador for the Unified Forecast System (UFS). This will include evaluating the new Rapid Refresh Forecast System and/or the latest version of the Short Range Weather (SRW) application for its usability in an academic setting, and provide recommendations to inform future training, tutorials, and user support for that application. Alekya will work on developing an engagement and outreach plan tailored to encouraging students to become more involved with the UFS, provide a student-based perspective to UFS and EPIC-based strategies, and inform the development of the second annual Unifying Innovations in Forecasting Capabilities Workshop (UIFCW). Alekya will also moderate one of the sessions at UIFCW.
Institution: Harrisburg University of Science and Technology
Degree: B.S. in Enviornmental Science and Sustainability
Interesting fact: I love going to concerts.
What’s something that makes you happy? Spending the day in nature.
Project Title: Societal Data Insights Initiative (SDII) at the Nexus of Weather and Climate
Anthony joins the Societal Data Insights Initiative (SDII) to complete a summer research project that integrates social science data and weather/climate. Working with the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science (SBES) team in WPO, mentors from the National Weather Service (NWS), and NOAA’s Performance, Risk, and Social Science Office (PRSSO), he will develop a web-based ArcGIS application that helps communicate SBES findings to diverse internal and external audiences. Anthony’s project is expected to focus on integrating data on some aspect of social vulnerability, such as food insecurity, and weather/climate data in a geospatial analysis.
Institution: Jackson State University
Major: Meteorology
Interesting fact about you: I am an Eagle Scout
What’s your go-to karaoke song? Anything Keith Sweat really.
Cameron will complete a summer project designed to use GPLOT software to test visualizations derived from post-processing of the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS). This testing will be especially timely to show the effectiveness of the HAFS’ performance when this model might be needed most–during a potentially active 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season. In particular, Cameron will perform post-processing data analysis of a historical hurricane event (i.e., analyzing output from an already completed model run), and assess the viability of HAFS in the context of today’s forecasting environment. He will also provide insight into visualization best practices to help NOAA create useful and usable products.
Institution: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Major: Earth, Society, & Environmental
Interesting fact about you: I listen to a wide variety of music – lately I’ve enjoyed Japanese heavy metal and K-pop. I do gymnastics, dance, and martial arts in my free time, and I have a scrunkly dog back home in Los Angeles named Louie.
What’s your favorite place on Earth? I love visiting butterfly gardens!
Emily will complete a summer project designed to analyze customer experience and satisfaction survey data for WPO’s 2023 weather research funding competition. This includes developing a focus group moderator guide and providing research-guided recommendations on how to enhance outreach and education materials related to the Weather Program Office’s (WPO) future funding opportunities. Emily will also assist WPO staff in developing new webinar materials, as well as her perspective on improving and modernizing WPO’s approach to engaging the public.
Institution: University of Delaware
Major: Meteorology and Climate Science
Interesting fact about you: I am classically trained in ballet and have danced for the last 16 years.
What’s one TV show/movie that you could watch over and over? Interstellar
Laura will provide research to help set guidelines for how WPO and the weather community as a whole measure innovation. She will help identify opportunities in WPO to better align research with its mission of improving Earth prediction systems, such as the UFS, and gaining new perspectives from all members in the community. Her work will also emphasize additional activities and efforts that WPO can implement to better foster innovation and help to draw in the rising generation. She will explore concepts of innovation, risk, perception of projects in terms of their potential for transition of innovations to operations, and benefits to NOAA and society.
Topic: Atmospheric Physics
Brief: Over the last two years, Emily Faber, Ph.D. candidate in atmospheric physics, painstakingly replicated part of a NASA climate model on UMBC computing systems. She compared the model’s predictions to on-the-ground data collected at meteorological stations run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—and she found significant differences between the two.
Topic: Advance Tropical Cyclone Predictions
Brief: At its core, Joseph’s research seeks to advance the science of tropical cyclone prediction through more accurate treatment and assimilation of satellite radiance measurements in the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS), NOAA’s operational numerical weather model for tropical cyclones.
Topic: Origin of the Monsoon Onset Vortex (MOV)
Brief: The Indian Summer Monsoon, active from June to September, delivers about 80% of India’s annual rainfall in just four months. In late May or early June, just ahead of the core monsoon period in July and August, atmospheric conditions are sometimes perfect for the formation of a whirling vortex over the Arabian Sea – 60% of the time in fact. This phenomenon is called the Monsoon Onset Vortex (MOV), and it is precisely what interests Shreyas Dhavale.
Shreyas Rajendra Dhavale
Host: Dr. Anantha Aiyyer
PhD Institution: North Carolina State University
Proposal: The origin and evolution of the Monsoon onset vortex and its subseasonal impacts: Integrating Theory and predictability studies using the UFS
Emily Faber
Host: Dr. Adriana Rocha-Lima
PhD Institution: University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Proposal: Impacts of Surface Winds on Dust Emissions: Comparison of Measurements and Models to Improve Model Parameterization and Further Understanding of Sub-grid Processes
Joseph Knisely
Host: Dr. Jon Poterjoy
PhD Institution: University of Maryland’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science (AOSC)
Proposal: Exploring New Satellite Bias Correction Methodologies for Numerical Weather Prediction within Theoretical and Operational Frameworks