NorthWest Research Associates

Excellence in Basic & Applied Research Since 1984

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Group: Scientists & Engineers Administration Students Affiliates

Location: Boulder Seattle Monterey Off-site

⇑ Top Joan Alexander, PhD
Vice President, Senior Research Scientist, Director - Boulder, CO
alexand@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x204
Personal website

Research interests: Atmospheric Sciences. Atmospheric dynamics, waves, convection, global circulation modeling, mesoscale modeling, satellite, aircraft, balloon-borne observations, and middle atmosphere studies

⇑ Top Mark Baldwin, PhD
Affiliate Scientist, Director
mark99baldwin@gmail.com

Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: Atmospheric Sciences. The Arctic Oscillation, stratosphere-troposphere coupling, and propagation of planetary-scale waves in the troposphere and stratosphere.

⇑ Top Graham Barnes, PhD
Senior Research Scientist, Director - Boulder, CO
graham@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x234
Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Space Physics. Magnetohydrodynamics, numerical modeling of space plasmas.

⇑ Top Erich Becker, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
erich.becker@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x225

⇑ Top Samuel Beste
Student Intern - Boulder, CO
s.samuel23@nwra.com


⇑ Top Janet Biggs
Boulder Operations Manager, Benefits Manager, Proposal Manager - Boulder, CO

303 415 9701 x0 (Main Boulder Ph #)

⇑ Top Aaron Birch, PhD
Affiliate Scientist
birch@mps.mpg.de

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Solar physics, local helioseismology, solar interior.

⇑ Top Douglas Braun, PhD
Vice President, Senior Research Scientist, Director - Boulder, CO
dbraun@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x226
Personal website

Research interests: Space Physics - solar and astrophysics. Local helioseismology, solar interior.

⇑ Top William Brown, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Monterey, CA
bill@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Marissa Bruno
Assistant Contracts Administrator - Monterey, CA

831-582-4900 (Main Monterey Office Ph #)

⇑ Top Greg Bullock, PhD
Research Scientist - Monterey, CA
greg@nwra.com
(831) 582-4907
Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Magdalena Carranza
Research Scientist - Monterey, CA
magdalena@nwra.com


⇑ Top Alexandra Cherkassky, MS
Senior Accountant, Payroll and Project Budgets - Seattle, WA



⇑ Top Mariona Claret
Research Scientist - Seattle, WA
mclaret@nwra.com


⇑ Top Milena Corcos
Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
milena@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x241

⇑ Top Eric Danioux, PhD
Affiliate Scientist
edanioux@gmail.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Inertia-gravity waves. Geophysical turbulence. Interaction between balanced and unbalanced motions. Mixed layer dynamics.

⇑ Top Philip DeBoer
IT System Administrator - Boulder, CO



⇑ Top Donald Delisi, PhD
Founder, Chairman of the Board, Executive Vice President, Senior Research Scientist, Director - Seattle, WA



Research interests: Acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of laboratory and field measurements of vortex evolution, internal waves, and turbulent flows; comparisons of field data with laboratory measurements and numerical simulations; experimental fluid mechanics; analysis and interpretation of atmospheric and oceanic flows.

⇑ Top Bergen Delisi
Office Support - Seattle, WA



⇑ Top Aldrich Dinglasan
IT Support Specialist - Seattle, WA



⇑ Top Karin Dissauer, PhD
Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
dissauer@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x218
Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Philip Dunkerton
Administrative Asst - Seattle, WA

206-556-8151 (Main Seattle Office #)

⇑ Top Jeffrey Early, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Seattle, WA
jearly@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: Mesoscale and large scale physical oceanography; the application of symmetry methods to geophysical fluid dynamics

⇑ Top Shane Elipot
Affiliate Scientist
selipot@miami.edu


⇑ Top Jonathan Fentzke, PhD
Affiliate Scientist


Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Research focus on Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) studies including modeling, simulation, and data fusion using Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) and Lidar. Interests include collisional plasma processes in the E-Region of the Ionosphere as well as meteoric smoke measurements and their relation to the Micrometeoric Input Function (MIF).

⇑ Top Talida Fodorean, CPA, CIA
Manager of Accounting - Seattle, WA



⇑ Top Andrew Frahm
Proposal Administrator and Administrative Specialist - Grants - Boulder, CO



⇑ Top Patricia Franke, PhD
Research Scientist - Virginia
pfranke@nwra.com


⇑ Top Edward Fremouw, PhD
Founder, Emeritus


Personal website

Research interests: Near-Earth Space Science: ionospheric physics (satellite experiments & radiowave tomographic imaging) and radio propagation (scintillation observations & modeling).

⇑ Top Sergey Fridman, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Monterey, CA
sergey@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Electromagnetic propagation in randomly structured ionization; Robust methods for solution of inverse problems and ill-posed problems; Ionospheric modeling for Over-the-Horizon radar coordinate registration; VHF/UHF ionospheric propagation and scintillations; Advanced signal processing for radar.

⇑ Top Alice Gregory
Corporate Governance Manager, Facility Security Officer - Seattle, WA



⇑ Top Heidi Guerrero, MBA
Senior Accountant, Accounts Payable - New Mexico



⇑ Top Maryam Hami, M.S.
Research Scientist - Monterey, CA
mhami@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Mark Hausman, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Monterey, CA
markhausman@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Research focus is on computer programs that model complex physical systems, specifically simulations and studies of ionospheric and space physics, and their effects on radar and communications systems. Fields of expertise include data translation (e.g., raw radar data from ROTHR and BMEWS) and data visualization.

⇑ Top Matthew Hogan, PhD
Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
mhogan@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x224
Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Experimental physics, astrophysics and atmospheric physics, parameter estimation using constraints, deep learning methods, and detector design.

⇑ Top Laura Holt, PhD
Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
laura@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x239
Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Linea Hulse
Business Operations Manager - Haiku, HI



⇑ Top Dennis Knepp, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Monterey, CA
dennis.knepp@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Kelsey Kramer, MS
Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
kelsey@nwra.com
(303) 415 9701 x227

Research interests: Atmospheric and Environmental Scientist with 5+ years of experience in remote sensing, ionospheric data analysis, GPS signal processing, and radiographic image processing. Solid background in MATLAB and IDL/ENVI programming for modeling and simulation purposes, along with diagnostic development. Worked in both government and academia settings to develop consistent analysis tools usable across industries. Strong understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of scientific research and the need for collaboration between different fields in order to meet the needs of a project and share findings.

⇑ Top Shawn Kraut, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Monterey, CA
shawn@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Eric Kunze, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Seattle, WA
kunze@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Understanding and parameterizing the effects of smallscale ocean processes on large scales, including the impacts of internal waves, turbulence, fronts, double diffusion and stratified turbulence.

⇑ Top KD Leka, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
leka@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x219
Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: Space Physics. Solar physics, solar magnetic fields, sunspots and solar active regions, solar flares, polarimetry and instrumentation.

⇑ Top Pascale Lelong, PhD
Senior Research Scientist, Director - Seattle, WA
pascale@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: Ocean and Earth Sciences. Geophysical fluid dynamics; perturbation and asymptotic methods; numerical modeling.

⇑ Top Gad Levy, PhD, CCM
Affiliate Scientist
gad@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: Atmospheric Sciences, Ocean and Earth Sciences

⇑ Top Beate Liepert, PhD
Affiliate Scientist
bgliepert@gmail.com

Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: Climate variability from inter-annual to centennial time scales, water and energy cycle in a changing climate. Global dimming and brightening and its implications for climate including the water and carbon cycles. In-situ measurements of air pollution and radiative properties in urban and suburban environments on board hot-air balloons.

⇑ Top Charles Lindsey, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
lindsey@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x238
Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Larry Mahrt, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Corvallis, OR
mahrt@nwra.com
541-829-0980
Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Nocturnal boundary layers, topographically modified flows, micrometeorology

⇑ Top Gloria Manney, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - New Mexico
manney@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Philip Mote, PhD
Affiliate Scientist
pmote@coas.oregonstate.edu

Personal website

Research interests: Studies of clouds, water vapor, and radiation in the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere.

⇑ Top Andreas Muschinski, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
andreas@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x228
Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Atmospheric Physics. Atmospheric turbulence and waves; atmospheric remote sensing; optical, acoustic, and radio-wave propagation through the turbulent atmosphere; boundary-layer meteorology; atmospheric measurement science.

⇑ Top Steven Neshyba
Senior Research Scientist - Seattle, WA
sneshyba@nwra.com


⇑ Top LJ Nickisch, PhD
Vice President, Senior Research Scientist, Director - Monterey, CA
lj@nwra.com
(831) 582-4905
Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Theoretical physics; computational physics and numerical simulation; electromagnetic propagation in randomly structured ionization; HF communication and signal specification in nuclear environments; over-the-horizon radar; VHF/UHF radar ionization-induced propagation effects; stochastic electrodynamics and ZPF-related physics.

⇑ Top Joan Oltman-Shay, PhD
President, Senior Research Scientist, Director - Seattle, WA
joshay@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: Field and model studies of nearshore (shoreline to nominally 10m depth) wave and current dynamics and the interplay with sediment- and morpho-dynamics.

⇑ Top David Ortland, PhD
Affiliate Scientist
qajariac@gmail.com


Research interests: Atmospheric sciences. Atmospheric and mathematical science.

⇑ Top Hamid Pahlavan
Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
pahlavan@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x236
Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Cameron Parkhurst
Manager of Business Information Systems - Seattle, WA



Research interests: Python, Business Intelligence, Web Development, Computer Networking

⇑ Top David Parsons
Senior Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
DaveParsons@nwra.com


Research interests: Research interests: Understanding the structure, predictability, and impacts of extreme convective rainfall events in our warming climate. Utilizing convective-permitting models and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand both local and downstream forecast failures in weather and climate models. Research on mesoscale phenomena, such as the nocturnal low-level jet , atmospheric bores, and diurnal variations in orographic flows.

⇑ Top Sara Petty, Ph.D.
Research Scientist - California
spetty@nwra.com


⇑ Top Jasna Pittman, PhD
Affiliate Scientist
jvpittman@gmail.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Stratosphere-troposphere exchange, atmospheric dynamics, atmospheric chemistry, greenhouse gases, stratospheric humidity, airborne measurements, satellite observations, chemistry-climate modeling.

⇑ Top Orion Poplawski
Manager of IT Systems - Boulder, CO


Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Computer and Network Administration, Software Development.

⇑ Top Matthew Pruis, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Seattle, WA
matt@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Experience in data analysis, turbulence and mixed layer processes, and data-model comparison studies. Research projects ranging from studies of the near-shore coastal environment, to deep-sea hydrothermal vents, to sea-ice modeling and field projects in the Arctic, to aircraft wake vortices. Recent work has included the A380 wake separation study group and participation in the FAA's ReCat Phase I project to reduce aircraft wake separation.

⇑ Top Robert Robins, PhD
Affiliate Scientist
rerscicomp@gmail.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Computer modeling of hydrodynamic phenomena, including vortex evolution, internal wave propagation, and turbulent dissipation; validation of computer models by comparison of computer results with observational data; processing and visualization of scientific data; diversified computing experience: various micro, mini, main-frame, and super computer systems.

⇑ Top Penny Rowe, PhD
Research Scientist - Seattle, WA
penny@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: The interaction of clouds and trace gases with infrared radiation, particularly in Polar regions. Black carbon and other light-absorbing impurities in snow in Antarctica and the Chilean Andes. Scanning electron microscopy of ice crystals. Molecular dynamics calculations of ice.

⇑ Top David Schecter, PhD
Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
schecter@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x215
Personal website

Research interests: Atmospheric Research

⇑ Top James Secan, MS
Senior Research Scientist - Seattle, WA
jim@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Space physics. Ionospheric physics (modeling, observations, data analysis), space weather (effects of the space environment on satellite, communications, and navigation systems), and operational software design and implementation.

⇑ Top Dana Shay, CPCM
Manager of Contracts & Grants, Seattle Operations Manager - Seattle, WA



⇑ Top Ken Smalls
Accounts Receivable, Senior Accountant - Seattle, WA



⇑ Top Francis Smith
Affiliate Engineer



Research interests: Data acquisition systems, data analysis (time and frequency domain), industrial process control (stability analysis and hardware selection), analog/digital circuit design, electro-optical systems, microprocessor system design, heat-exchanger design.

⇑ Top Natalia Solorzano, PhD
Research Scientist - Seattle, WA
natalia@nwra.com


⇑ Top Chad Spooner, PhD
Senior Research Scientist, Director - Monterey, CA
cmspooner@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Instruments and Software, Statistical Signal Processing, Higher-Order Statistics, Cyclostationary Signals, and Automatic Signal Classification

⇑ Top Jielun Sun, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
jielun@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x235
Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: atmospheric physics especially in the atmospheric boundary layer including dynamics, turbulent mixing, in situ observations, turbulence-wave-interactions, air-land/sea interactions, trace gas transport, surface heterogeneity, and complex terrain; atmospheric energetics, and mesoscale dynamics.

⇑ Top Jeremy Thomas, PhD
Research Scientist - Seattle, WA
jeremy@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: I study geophysical electric and magnetic fields to further our understanding of Earth's atmosphere and space environment. Topics include lightning, middle atmospheric discharges such as sprites and ELVES, solar-terrestrial effects in the ionosphere and magnetosphere, and reports of geomagnetic and ionospheric precursors to earthquakes.

⇑ Top Elena Tolkova, PhD
Affiliate Scientist
e.tolkova@gmail.com

Personal website

Research interests: Research areas: Tsunami dynamics; numerical modeling; time-series analysis

⇑ Top Cynthia Twohy, PhD
Affiliate Scientist
twohy@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Twohy conducts independent and collaborative research on atmospheric aerosol particles, clouds, and climate, using both field research and modeling. Most of her work involves making measurements from research aircraft in different regions around the globe. She studies how particles in clean and polluted environments form cloud droplets and ice and then influence climate through changes in cloud microphysics, radiative properties and precipitation.

⇑ Top Susan Twomey
Administrative Specialist, Contracts



⇑ Top Sharon Vadas, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
vasha@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x202
Curriculum vitae | Personal website

Research interests: Atmospheric physics, gravity wave dissipation in the thermosphere, ray tracing gravity waves in the lower atmosphere and thermosphere, gravity wave source specification from convection, secondary gravity wave source specification, and modelling horizontal and vertical body forcing. Both analytical and numerical techniques are employed.

⇑ Top Mariana Vadas Arendt
Student Intern - Boulder, CO
s.mariana24@nwra.com


⇑ Top Eric Wagner
Senior Support Engineer - Boulder, CO
wagneric@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x221
Curriculum vitae
⇑ Top Hannah (Huan) Wang
Accountant - Seattle, WA



⇑ Top Joseph Werne, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
werne@cora.nwra.com | werne@nwra.com
(303) 415-9701 x207
Personal website

Research interests: High-performance computing, including algorithm development, implementation and optimization on massively parallel processor (MPP) computer platforms; Detailed experience with Cray YMP, C90, T3D, T3E and SGI Origin 2000 machines at various U.S. supercomputer centers. Emphasis is on turbulence in both convection and stable-layer simulation and theory.

⇑ Top Martin Woodard, PhD
Senior Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
mfw@nwra.com

Curriculum vitae

Research interests: Space physics. Helioseismology, the solar interior, astrophysics.

⇑ Top Jennifer Woods
Consultant



⇑ Top Grace Yeung
Research Support Scientist - Monterey, CA
grace@nwra.com


⇑ Top Nikolay Zabotin
Senior Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
nzabotin@nwra.com

Personal website

Research interests: Development and application of advanced methods of remote sensing using general principles of wave physics. Development of the next generation of advanced ionospheric sounding technique (the Dynasonde) and of the new methods for plasma irregularity diagnostics. Theoretical and experimental studies of the wave processes in the geospheres, of the HF propagation effects in irregular ionospheric plasma, application of passive noise interferometry in ocean acoustics and in radio physics.

⇑ Top Liudmila Zabotina
Research Scientist - Boulder, CO
lzabotina@nwra.com