Norman, Okla.— University of Oklahoma research scientist, Corey Potvin, is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of independent research careers. Potvin, a research scientist with OU’s Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, was the only PECASE recipient from Oklahoma. He was nominated by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“This award for Dr. Potvin could not be more well deserved. His high level of achievement is a source of great pride for the university,” said OU President David L. Boren.
Since joining CIMMS and NSSL as a research scientist, Potvin’s work has been largely devoted to helping develop a prototype Warn-on-Forecast ensemble of analysis and forecasting systems. High-resolution probabilistic guidance from such systems will hopefully permit longer tornado warning lead time and fewer false alarms. His research has been divided almost equally between (1) adapting and testing techniques for application to convective-scale radar data assimilation, and (2) using numerical simulations to explore supercell predictability.
“Potvin has made a tremendous imprint on our stormscale research enterprise in his relatively short time here as scientist and student. He joins a team of elite scientists at CIMMS and NSSL who have previously been given this prestigious award. We are privileged to have him at CIMMS and look forward to great things ahead,” said Randy Peppler, CIMMS interim director.
“I’m thrilled and honored to have my work recognized at such a high level. Having the opportunity to conduct meaningful, exciting research with the top-notch scientists at CIMMS, NSSL and OU is a great privilege, and I would not have received this award without their mentorship and collaboration,” Potvin said.
During Potvin’s graduate studies at OU, he developed a multiple-Doppler technique for detecting and characterizing intense convective vortices and investigated the capabilities of vertical vorticity constraint and spatially variable advection correction to improve variational dual-Doppler retrievals of vertical velocity in convection. As a National Research Council postdoctoral associate at NSSL, Potvin examined and compared errors in close-range supercell wind retrievals from traditional and variational dual-Doppler analysis and ensemble Kalman data radar data assimilation.
