After graduating from Princeton, I accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Then I accepted a faculty position in the UCLA Department of Atmospheric Sciences. Princeton’s Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences is well-known as one of the best in the field. The program’s high standing definitely gave me an edge in the job market. Also, the relation of the Princeton graduate program to GFDL is very unique and affords students the perspective of a government laboratory in addition to that of a traditional graduate institution. Almost everyone both within and outside my field reacts positively to the fact that I'm a Princeton alum.

      At Tiger Noodles, my favorite Chinese restaurant in Princeton, I received one night the following fortune cookie: "Great things await, if you work a little harder." I taped the red-printed fortune to the top of my computer, and it became my mantra during the final months of dissertation-writing. By that time, however, I did not need a fortune cookie to remind me to work hard--years at Princeton had taught me that if I work harder than I've worked before, I can accomplish more than ever expected. I remember the late nights studying for general exams and the weekends debugging Fortran code. But, my more potent memories are those of the accepted papers, the passed exams, the lasting friendships, and the delicious Chinese food.
      I started at Princeton in 1995 and completed my Ph.D. in August, 2001, in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) Program. I was interested in public policy as well as science, and participated in the Princeton Environmental Institute-Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy Program (PEI-STEP). Through my PEI-STEP participation, I earned Graduate Certificate in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School, and incorporated policy issues into my dissertation. I went on to a post-doc at Columbia University's Earth Institute. My work there focussed on the role of air pollution models in public health and policy assessments. Since August, 2003, I have been an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
      When deciding where to apply for graduate school, Princeton appealed to me as a prestigious university well-suited to my academic interests in numerical modeling of the atmosphere. After having been accepted by a number of strong programs, however, I could base my decision on personal as well as academic considerations. In the end, I chose Princeton because I thought I would be happy there. The professors were nice, the students were friendly, and the flowers were blooming on the trees during my April visit.
      My initial impressions were correct-I was very happy. For three years, I lived in the Graduate College, since I liked the community of students there, as well as the old rooms overlooking the golf course. From the GC, I moved to an aging duplex on Wiggins Street, shared with an ever-changing collection of housemates. We would eat breakfast on our porch in the summertime, and throw big parties late into the night.
      The AOS Program offered close interactions with faculty and other members of the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL). The computing resources were extraordinary, and my advisor was the best ever. The flexibility of the AOS Program allowed me to tailor a research program well-suited to my interests, and I was able to benefit from the expertise of faculty in a number of different departments. Overall, I had an extremely positive experience at Princeton, and my time there helped get my career off to a good start.

      GFDL and Princeton's associated AOS Program have a reputation of excellence in theoretical research on and modeling of global-scale climate dynamics. I chose Princeton's AOS Program because its faculty offers a blend of expertise in theoretical, computational, and observational studies of the global climate that is unique worldwide.
      The AOS Program is one of the few graduate programs in which the atmosphere and ocean are studied not as separate entities, but as coupled components of the climate system, with similar fluid dynamical phenomena and with connections between them, for example, through heat exchange and along biogeochemical pathways.
      Interaction with my adviser, Isaac Held, and with other faculty members was what I benefited from most during my graduate studies at Princeton. Scientists at GFDL and in the AOS Program are unusually available and ready to engage in discussions with graduate students. The superb computational resources to which students in the AOS Program have access are unmatched.
      I also enjoyed the intellectually stimulating atmosphere at Princeton at large. Princeton's graduate school is small but very diverse, so that it is easy to meet fellow graduate students not only in the science departments, but also in departments such as architecture, music, and literature.
      To find an academic position and to get to know others working in my field, it was very helpful that scientists from other leading institutions visit Princeton regularly. After graduation, I worked for two years at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, in the new Center for Atmosphere-Ocean Science. Currently I am an Assistant Professor at the California Institute of Technology, in an environmental science and engineering program with a focus on the science of the global climate.