Aggie Student Veteran Receives AMS Outstanding Poster Award
Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography student, Lance Belobrajdic ’21, was awarded an Outstanding Student Conference Poster Award from the American Meteorological Society (AMS).
Mar 10, 2020
Texas A&M University College of Geosciences student Lance Belobrajdic ’21 recently received an Outstanding Student Conference Poster Award: Undergraduate from the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Belobrajdic presented his research at the 2020 AMS Conference in Boston from Jan. 11-12, 2020.
Belobrajdic is currently an undergraduate student in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, as well as a graduate student in the Department of Oceanography through the Master of Ocean Science and Technology (MOST) graduate degree program. Belobrajdic is a military veteran, and was named a 2018 Tillman Scholar.
Lance Belobrajdic standing next to his poster at the 2020 American Meteorological Society Conference. (Photo courtesy of Lance Belobrajdic.)
Belobrajdic’s research focuses on over evaluating geostationary and polar orbiting satellite measurements to in situ buoy measurements of sea surface temperatures (SST) for large and small lakes.
“This research was started while I interned at the NASA Kennedy Space Center over the 2019 summer and continued while at Texas A&M with my advisors Dr. Don Conlee (Instructional professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences) and Dr. Robert Hetland (Professor in the Department of Oceanography),” said Belobrajdic.
The goal of the research was to determine the reliability, consistency, and accuracy of the two different satellite platforms ability to measure SSTs for the Indian River Lagoon around the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Measured SST data is incorporated into the local high-resolution numerical weather prediction (NWP) model from NASA to resolve the mesoscale land/sea breezes initiated by the lagoon system which inhibits rocket launches along the Space Coast. Read more about his research during the NASA internship in this article.
At the AMS Conference, Belobrajdic gave a poster presentation titled “Investigating Sea Surface Temperature Retrievals of Lakes using Geostationary and Polar Orbiting Platforms.”
“I am grateful to my judges who enjoyed my poster and presentation and thank the AMS Student Conference team for allowing me to present this research,” said Belobrajdic.
“I would like to thank my two advisors and mentors at NASA, Dr. Kristin Smith and Dr. Kathy Rice, who greatly supported and guided me through this research process.”
“Most of the practice, preparation, familiarity for presenting research came from the department and faculty in encouraging students to present in the classroom to develop these public speaking and presentation skills,” said Belobrajdic.
By Bumsoo Kim