Congratulations to Dr. Demirdjian – CW3E Graduate Student Successfully Defends Dissertation

May 12, 2020

The third CW3E PhD student (and second in one week!) has successfully defended his dissertation. Dr. Reuben Demirdjian’s defense was held on Friday, May 8, 2020. His dissertation title is “Mesoscale Dynamics of Atmospheric Rivers,” and includes two chapters published in peer-review journals (Demirdjian et al., 2020a,b). His third chapter has been submitted to the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. Reuben’s committee members were Marty Ralph and Joel Norris (Co-Chairs), Amato Evan, Jan Kleissl, Richard Rotunno, and Shang-Ping Xie. Funding for Reuben’s dissertation came from FIRO and the AR Program, both under PI Marty Ralph.

Reuben has been selected to be a Postdoctoral Scholar working with Jim Doyle and Carolyn Reynolds at the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, CA.

Due to the COVID-19 health crisis, Reuben defended his dissertation virtually. CW3E is incredibly proud of Reuben’s accomplishment, and looks forward to celebrating with him in-person as soon as the health precautions are no longer necessary.

Reuben Demirdjian beginning his dissertation defense via Zoom after an introduction by Committee Co-Chair Marty Ralph.

Reuben Demirdjian concluding his dissertation defense via Zoom.

Demirdjian, R., Doyle, J.D., Reynolds, C.A. Norris, J.A., Michaelis, A.C., Ralph, F.M., 2020a: A Case Study of the Physical Processes Associated with the Atmospheric River Initial Condition Sensitivity from an Adjoint Model. J. Atmos. Sci., 77, 691-709, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-19-0155.1

Demirdjian, R., J.R. Norris, A. Martin, and F.M. Ralph, 2020b: Dropsonde Observations of the Ageostrophy within the Pre-Cold-Frontal Low-Level Jet Associated with Atmospheric Rivers. Mon. Wea. Rev., 148, 1389-1406, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-19-0248.1