Derek said all of the professors in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences are incredible and have contributed meaningfully to his growth both as a meteorologist and as a person.
Two of them in particular, Dr. Matthew Van Den Broeke and Dr. Adam Houston, have been especially instrumental in fostering his understanding of severe convective environments and in providing opportunities to deepen this understanding through real-world application. They are always willing to answer his questions and to offer their input/advice. Derek is forever thankful for them.
Why this major
Derek has always known what he wanted to do!
Favorite course
Advanced Synoptic Meteorology because the class got into concepts pertaining to the forecasting of severe weather. Forecasting and analyzing atmospheric environments supportive of severe thunderstorms is Derek's passion and something that he would like to spend his career/life doing.
Research experience
Derek's senior capstone research was to explain and establish similarities in the environmental evolution preceding three supercellular tornado outbreaks across the Southern Plains. He also developed a dataset under the guidance of Dr. Van Den Broeke for upcoming collaborative research on splitting supercell thunderstorms.
Internship or job
He gained extensive experience as a student volunteer at both the North Platte and Omaha National Weather Service offices, where he spent hundreds of hours observing and participating in federal meteorological service. Applying the concepts and theory from coursework to the real world was a game-changer in truly grasping the material and it set him up for success for the rest of his undergraduate career. That experience culminated with the tornado outbreak of April 26th 2024, during which 20 tornadoes impacted eastern Nebraska. Having observed and assisted with operations during that event, Derek feels prepared to provide high-quality meteorological service to the public during high-impact weather.
Derek also completed an internship with the NOAA/NASA GOES-R TOWR-S team (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites-R Series / Total Operational Weather Readiness-Satellites). His primary responsibility was to monitor satellites from governmental agencies worldwide, ensuring proper data transmission to end users in the National Weather Service. This experience came shortly after having taken a course titled "Physical Meteorology" in which students learned about how satellites and other remote-sensing instruments function. As someone who intends to perform observational analysis using remote-sensing platforms for a living, both the course and the internship were invaluable.
Involvement
Derek is actively involved in both the local and national meteorological communities. Locally, he serves as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Omaha/Offutt Chapter of the American Meteorological Society (AMS)/National Weather Association (NWA), where they organize meetings that provide opportunity for collaboration and professional development. Nationally, he contributes as a student member on the AMS Board for Operational Government Meteorologists, where they collaborate on initiatives to benefit federal meteorologists.
He has also taken on roles at national conferences, serving as a session co-chair during the 33rd Conference on Weather Analysis and Forecasting (WAF)/29th Conference on Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and as a notetaker during the Research-to-Operations Nexus at the AMS 2025 Annual Meeting.
Plans after graduation
To contribute to the mission of protecting lives and property and enhancing the national economy as a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.