Junhong (June) Wang

Junhong (June) Wang

AMS is the nation’s premier scientific and professional organization promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric and related sciences. Given the current political environment toward climate change and scientific research in general, it is more urgent than ever for AMS to play a bigger role in educating K–12 students and the general public about the weather and climate and how they are affected by our activities.

If I am elected to the AMS Council, I would use my expertise in atmospheric observations and passion for education and outreach (E&O) to advocate and promote using weather instruments and observational networks to educate K–12 students through over 130 AMS local chapters and in collaboration with the AMS Board on Outreach and Pre-College Education. It could start with identifying a couple of local chapters to develop an effective E&O module, and then implement it to other locations. Such an E&O module could consist of a couple of big events each year, regular K–12 school visits, incorporating measurements into the colloquium of the middle and high school Earth science or relevant courses, and mentoring high school students for research projects. The focus is on taking advantage of instruments and observational networks easily accessible to the local chapters for hands-on demonstrations, activities, and field projects. For example, at least 25 universities own a radiosonde system, which is proven to be one of the best tools for E&O. Undergraduate and graduate students in atmospheric and environmental sciences in many universities would play an important role in the proposed E&O activities; in return, these students would also be trained to be better communicators and educators through these activities. We all work together through AMS to attract, educate, and train the next generation of scientists and engineers in the atmospheric sciences and other STEM fields and convey the forefront knowledge in our field to the general public.

 

Junhong (June) Wang

Junhong (June) Wang is a research associate professor at the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at SUNY Albany. In this role, she teaches an undergraduate course on “Meteorological and Environmental Measurements,” conducts research, and organizes education and outreach (E&O) activities. She also serves as the data quality-assurance and quality-control (QA/QC) manager for the New York State Mesonet (NYSM). Her responsibilities include ensuring NYSM delivers high-quality data to the user community, recruiting and supervising student interns at the NYSM Operations Center, and coordinating NYSM E&O activities.

Wang received her B.S. from Peking University, her M.S. from the National Research Center for Marine Environment Forecasts, and her Ph.D. from Columbia University. All were in atmospheric science. After graduation in 1997, she worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Colorado Boulder. From 1999 to 2014, she worked at the Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) at NCAR, first as an associate scientist and then as a scientist I, II, and III. At NCAR, she led and managed the Sounding Data Analysis Team and various research and instrument development projects at EOL. Wang was one of the NCAR/EOL team members that received the 2011 CO-LABS Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research for the “Innovation and Transformation of Dropsonde System Technology and Delivery Systems.” At NCAR, her papers were nominated three times for the UCAR Best Publication Award. She was also actively involved in K–12 and general public E&O activities, such as launching weather balloons at K–12 schools. She joined SUNY Albany in 2012.

Wang’s research interests include climate variability and change, meteorological instrumentation, weather and climate observations and networks, and GPS meteorology. She is an internationally known expert on atmospheric sounding technology, measurements and data, and weather and climate applications of ground-based GPS observations. She has published 60 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her other activities include membership in the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Working Group on GCOS Reference Upper-Air Network (GRUAN), cochair of the GRUAN task team on ground-based GPS precipitable water observations, Editor of the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology and the Journal of Meteorological Research, membership in the AMS Committee on Measurements and the AMS Board on Data Stewardship, and membership in the National Research Council Panel on lower-troposphere temperature trends.