Topic: Climatology
Lauren Gifford
Keah Schuenemann
Keah Schuenemann, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her areas of expertise include climate change, Greenland, climate, sea ice, and weather. She teaches Dynamic Meteorology, Synoptic Meteorology, Global Climate Change, and Physics and Chemistry for Elementary Education Majors.
Schuenemann has taught at MSU Denver since 2010 and is the director of the General Studies program. She has co-authored several papers, including “Synoptic Forcing of Precipitation Over Greenland: Climatology for 1961–99” and “Changes in Synoptic Weather Patterns and Greenland Precipitation in the 20th and 21st Centuries.” Schuenemann studies the large-scale weather around the Greenland Ice Sheet, the effects of recent climate changes on these weather patterns, and the state of the ice sheet and its contribution to sea-level rise.
More recently, she began studying how Arctic sea-ice extent affects midlatitude weather patterns, which are potentially responsible for recent droughts and cold-air outbreaks. Schuenemann is also interested in the topic of communicating climate change, the misconceptions about climate change, and developing a pedagogy on teaching climate change based on current communicating of climate-change research. She is passionate about promoting science literacy and critical thinking in the sciences.
Schuenemann received her doctorate and her master’s in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2008 and 2006, respectively, and a bachelor’s in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science from the University of Wisconsin in 2004.
Sam Ng
Sam Ng, Ph.D., is a professor of meteorology at Metropolitan State University of Denver where he’s been teaching for over a decade. His research includes regional and local climate changes, mesoscale convective systems, winter weather phenomenon, rapid cyclogenesis, occlusion process, quantitative precipitation forecasting and numerical weather prediction.
Tom Bellinger
Thomas R. Bellinger, Ph.D., is an affiliate professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Bellinger has over 35 years of experience in the areas of watershed hydrology, hydrologic modeling, military remote sensing technology with regard to water/natural resources and federal (Native American) water right negotiations. He currently serves as a technical advisor (hydrology) with the Department of Interior/USAID International Technical Assistance Program (ITAP) and is an active team member working with the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment). Bellinger retired as the principal hydrologist from the Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation, Technical Service Center in Denver in 2008 and joined MSU Denver as a visiting professor. He also worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Office in Denver and the former Reclamation Southwest Regional office in Amarillo, Texas. He is also a retired Navy Veteran.
Bellinger currently serves as a hydrologist with NecroSearch International (NSI). In the Navy, he served as a cryptologic technician, a naval intelligence officer and retired at the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He is a member of several professional associations and has authored a variety of journal articles, research papers and government reports on several aspects of the hydrologic and water sciences.
Bellinger received his doctorate in organizational management and leadership with a focus on water resources from University of Phoenix in 2008, a master’s in forest influences with a hydrology concentration and a bachelor’s in resources management and forestry from The State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York in 1982 and 1978 respectfully. He is a certified professional hydrologist through the American Institute of Hydrology.