2025 New WINGS Cohort

UCAR | CPAESS and NOAA’s Weather Program Office are pleased to welcome the second class of the Weather Program Office (WPO) Innovation for Next Generation Scientists (WINGS) Dissertation Fellowship of 2025-2027. The purpose of this fellowship is to help PhD students gain real-world, doctoral experience applying expertise in their field of study to weather model development with the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) and Joint Transfer Technology Initiative (JTTI) programs. The WINGS Fellowship will develop and foster the next generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) scholars, with the goal of bolstering the future workforce of America’s Weather Enterprise.

The WINGS Fellowship is designed for PhD candidates who have completed their required coursework and are in the beginning stages of writing a dissertation.  Fellows will work with their academic advisor and a mentor recommended by WPO and CPAESS to provide guidance during the dissertation process. The focus of this Fellowship is on research relevant to the NOAA WPO's Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) and Joint Transfer Technology Initiative (JTTI) programs. This focus will serve as a catalyst for community research and modeling system advances that continually inform and accelerate improvements in the Unified Forecast System (UFS), spanning local to global domains and predictive timescales from sub-hourly analyses to seasonal predictions.

Gina Eosco, WPO Director, looks forward to continuing this STEM educational program and community partnership. “The first class of fellows showed what’s possible with WINGS, and we’re proud of their accomplishments as they continue in their careers. I’m thrilled to welcome this next cohort of scientists as they bring their insights to EPIC and JTTI, helping those programs build on their success in advancing reliable and trusted weather forecasts.”

Hanne Mauriello, Director of UCAR's Scientific Partnerships and Services Center (SPS) and CPAESS said of the program “We are honored to manage the WINGS program. In creating this Fellowship, NOAA’s Weather Program Office has demonstrated exceptional foresight in recognizing that the future of weather forecasting depends on the next generation of scientists. By combining rigorous academic training with hands-on experience, this program equips doctoral students to contribute meaningfully to the protection of life, property, and national security. Their work will be vital as our nation faces increasingly complex weather challenges.”

The WINGS Dissertation Fellowship will be awarded for two years with a potential extension if approved. The WINGS Dissertation Fellowship is sponsored by NOAA’s Weather Program Office and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)’s Cooperative Program for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS). 

The WINGS program will enable Fellows to gain insights into their respective fields of study, support the Fellows’ integration into the workforce, and offer a unique opportunity to contribute to forecast model development. Potential topics for the Fellowship this year will focus on one or more areas of scientific and/or technical importance shared by UCAR, EPIC, and JTTI, including:   

• Data Assimilation
• Atmospheric Physics
• Systems Architecture (coupling, workflow, continuous integration and development)
• Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence
• Software Engineering to advance numerical weather prediction

A sincere congratulations to our new Fellows!

2025 Weather Program Office (WPO) Innovation for Next Generation Scientists (WINGS) Fellowship Awardees

Elena Fernandez

• PhD Advisor and Institution: Andrea Lopez Lang; and Zheng Wu, University at Albany, SUNY 

• Proposal Title: Implementing Machine Learning to Resolve Troposphere-Stratosphere Coupling and Teleconnections in S2S Forecasts

• Research Alignment: EPIC

Luke Howard

• PhD Advisor and Institution: Aneesh Subramanian, University of Colorado, Boulder

• Proposal Title: Improved Utilization of Dense Observations in Data Assimilation Systems Using Machine Learning

• Research Alignment: JTTI

Kaitlin Pereira

• PhD Advisor and Institution: Eric Anderson, Colorado School of Mines

• Proposal Title: Improvement of Lake Representation in Operational Weather Forecasting

• Research Alignment: EPIC

Learn more about the NOAA’s Weather Program Office (WPO) Innovation for Next Generation Scientists (WINGS) Fellowship.