Professor Earns Nearly $200,000 for Cyclone Formation Research

Sen Chiao, Florida Institute of Technology assistant professor of meteorology, Department of Marine and Environmental Systems, College of Engineering, has earned a National Science Foundation (NSF) award of $196,000 for three years for his research on the origins of tropical cyclones. 

The NSF’s Atmospheric Sciences Division funded Chiao’s work, which he will conduct with collaborators at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. He will also involve his students in this work. 

“At the present time, cyclogenesis off the African Coast is not well understood. This region has important implications due to tropical cyclones that can negatively impact the Caribbean and the United States,” said Chiao. 

He added that the project would advance understanding of tropical cyclone formation in the eastern Atlantic and improve the prediction of these storms. 

Meteorologist Chiao earned a doctoral degree in atmospheric sciences from North Carolina State University and did postdoctoral work at Harvard University.