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I am delighted to welcome you to the web presence of the
Unidata Program at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. The
purpose of this page is twofold: first, I wish to introduce myself and to
acquaint you with my background and research interests. But more
importantly, I want to bring you up to date on the Unidata Program, which
it is my privilege to serve as Director. The mission of our program is to
provide data, tools, and community leadership for enhanced Earth-system
science education.
I joined UCAR in January 2003 after spending nearly 16 years on the
faculty in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I received Bachelor’s and
Master’s degrees in Physics from the University of Poona in India and
a Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. My research
interests in the atmospheric sciences include studies of mesoscale
processes and weather prediction. I am also interested in the application
of information technology to enhance education and research in the
atmospheric and related sciences.
Shortly after my arrival in Boulder, we laid out an ambitious plan for
the Unidata program, submitting a five-year proposal to the National
Science Foundation to fund the core activities for the Program Center. That
innovative plan, built on the strengths of Unidata in providing a broad
array of data and tools for use in geoscience education and research,
reenergized us to develop software and systems for access, processing,
management, analysis, and visualization of geoscience data. Those
capabilities now benefit a diverse community of over 160 institutions vested
in the common goal of sharing data. To wit, community is at the core of
everything we do at Unidata.
Now nearing completion of that proposal's period of performance, we have been successful in accomplishing many of the stated goals, and in the months ahead we will continue work to accomplish the remaining challenges as we prepare the next proposal outlining new ideas and goals for the coming five years. Among other things, we
have developed new tools for data access and visualization,
broadened our community both disciplinarily and geographically, made
equipment awards to increase participation in Unidata, and offered an array
of new services for community benefit.
I am truly excited not only about our portfolio of activities but also
about the future of Unidata as we move forward aggressively to develop new
capabilities and to respond to the needs of an ever broadening community
around the world.
I invite you to explore our Web site, where you will find myriad
information on our program, plans and activities, and a variety of other
useful information about Unidata and our community. As you read about our
program, I hope you will develop a sense of why we are proud of our past
accomplishments and why we are optimistic about our future. And please feel
free to contact me directly if I can be of assistance in any way.
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