Florida Tech Meteorologist Earns U.S. Army Grant

MELBOURNE, FLA.—Sen Chiao, Florida Institute of Technology assistant professor of meteorology, Department of Marine and Environmental Systems, has earned a
$221,000 grant from the Department of the Army, U.S. Army Research. The grant will fund Chiao’s work for three years.

This funding comes on the heels of a $196,000 grant from the National Science Foundation Chiao received earlier this month, for his work on the origin of
tropical cyclones.

Chiao’s research addresses the fundamental understanding of down-valley jets, or high-speed streams of air, especially at night-time, calmer periods, in
Owens Valley, Calif. The project is a response to the need for more accurate weather forecasts in complex terrain regions and will support two Florida Tech
graduate students.

Chiao joined Florida Tech in 2005. His current research interest is in the dynamics and high-resolution modeling of mesoscale and microscale phenomena with
an emphasis on land surface processes. Some recent research topics include tropical cyclone origin in West Africa and the eastern topical Atlantic;
regional climate variability in the Caribbean islands; precipitation in mountainous regions; and stable planetary boundary layer parameterization
development.