About OCCRI

The staff of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute includes:

Dr. Philip Mote
Dr. Todd Jarvis
Dr. Heather Lintz
Dr. Robert Mera
Dr. David Rupp
Dr. Ahmed Salahuddin
Meghan Dalton
Kathie Dello
Josh Foster
Darrin Sharp
John Stevenson
Dean Vickers
Kim Carson
Sihan (Meredith) Li
Rachel Calmer

Dr. Philip Mote – Director
email: pmote@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 541-737-5694
Dr. Mote has an AB in Physics from Harvard College, and a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington. His research interests include: regional modeling with massive ensembles using volunteer computing; optimal design of surface climate observing networks; finescale variability of surface temperature; mountain snowpack and its response to climate variability and change; impacts of climate change on water resources, forests, shorelands; sea level rise; and strategies for adaptation to climate change. Dr. Mote is a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences (COAS) at Oregon State University. In 2009 he left the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington to become the first director of OCCRI. A more detailed bio of Dr. Mote is here.

Dr. Todd Jarvis – Associate Director and Assistant Professor in Geosciences
email: todd.jarvis@oregonstate.edu
phone: 541-737-4032
After earning degrees in Geology and Hydrogeology at the University of Wyoming, Todd was a consulting groundwater hydrologist for 25 years. During this time he worked for global water/wastewater engineering and groundwater engineering firms. He subsequently earned a PhD in Resource Geography from OSU. He organizes OCCRI’s seminar series, oversees many of the project budgets, and has an important role in communication. In addition to his leadership at OCCRI, he is also the Associate Director of the Institute for Water and Watersheds. In addition, he also teaches courses online to support The Certificate in Water Conflict Management and Transformation through OSU.

Dr. Heather Lintz – Assistant Professor Senior Research
email: hlintz@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 541-737-2996
Dr. Lintz holds an MS in Botany and PhD in Statistical Ecology from Oregon State University. Her research interests include methodological, basic, and applied questions addressing climate change and tree species distributions across the western United States. Her current research investigates ecological thresholds, climate extremes, climate variability, and landscape genomics as related to tree species’ distributions.

Dr. Robert Mera – UCAR PACE Post Doctoral Fellow
email: rjmera@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 856-261-0959
Dr. Mera works on adaptation to climate change through land use planning for the state of Oregon. This project is administered by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research’s (UCAR) Postdocs Applying Climate Expertise (PACE) Fellowship program. He holds a PhD and an MS in Atmospheric Sciences from North Carolina State University. His research interests include global climate change and its impact on society; large-scale atmospheric waves; and ensemble prediction systems.

Dr. David Rupp – Research Associate, Post Doctoral
email: drupp@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 541-737-2248
Dr. Rupp holds a BS in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Arizona, an MS in Forestry from Northern Arizona University, and a PhD in Water Resources Engineering from Oregon State University. His research interests include the impact of climate change on water resources, modeling of hydrological processes, and stochastic rainfall downscaling. At OCCRI, Dr. Rupp coordinates climate modeling activities in the region for the Climate Impacts Research Consortium and facilitates data dissemination to researchers and managers.

Dr. Ahmed Salahuddin – Research Associate, Post Doctoral
email: asalahud@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 541-737-5222
Dr. Salahuddin works on the regional climate modeling project. He holds a PhD in Coastal Resources Management from East Carolina University, an MA in physical geography from Ohio University, and an MS in physical geography from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. His research interests include global climate change and its feedbacks with regional climates, El Nino / Southern Oscillation and the Madden-Julian Oscillation, and adaptive strategies for climate change and the rise of sea-level.

Meghan Dalton – Faculty Research Assistant
email: mdalton@coas.oregonstate.edu
Meghan is working on the Pacific Northwest report for the US National Climate Assessment, as an activity of the NOAA-funded Climate Impacts Research Consortium. She earned a BA in Mathematics from Linfield College and an MS in Atmospheric Science from the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. Her research interests include global and regional climate change, climate feedbacks, impacts of climate change on natural resources, and climate change adaptation.

Kathie Dello – Faculty Research Assistant
email: kdello@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 541-737-8927
Kathie is the Deputy Director of the Oregon Climate Service, which serves as the State Climate Office for Oregon. She works on climate impacts analysis, climate adaptation and public outreach for OCCRI and the Climate Impacts Research Consortium. She coordinated Oregon’s first climate assessment report, which is required under the legislation that created OCCRI. She has a BS in Atmospheric Science and an MA in Geography (Physical) from the University at Albany (State University of New York).

Josh Foster – Faculty Research Assistant
email: jfoster@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 541-737-5262
Josh has a BA in International Relations and Environmental Policy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and two Master’s degrees from Yale University, one in International Relations and one in Environmental Management. He has over 20 years experience working on climate change science and policy issues in the federal and non-profit sectors, including over 16 years working on climate adaptation. He joins OCCRI as program manager for both the NOAA-funded Climate Impacts Research Consortium (CIRC) and the Department of Interior-funded regional Climate Science Center.

Darrin Sharp – Faculty Research Assistant
email: dsharp@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 970-219-6713
Darrin has a BS and MS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, and an MS in Ecology from Colorado State University. He has experience working in both the high-tech and environmental consulting industries. His interests include the development of information technologies used for ecological and environmental research, and the downscaling of global climate model results to the regional level.

John Stevenson – Faculty Research Assistant
email: jstevenson@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 541-737-5689
John joins OCCRI as a Regional Climate Extension Specialist with the Climate Impacts Research Consortium (CIRC), the new NOAA-funded Regional Integrated Science and Assessment (RISA) project for the Pacific Northwest. Previously he was a research analyst and field researcher with Ecotrust and also worked with NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. He holds an MS in Marine Resource Management from the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, and a BA in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dean Vickers – Senior Faculty Research Assistant
email: vickers@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 541-737-5706
Dean has been a full time Faculty Research Assistant at OSU since 1983. He has worked in a wide variety of research areas in the atmospheric sciences, ranging from turbulence and boundary layers, to mesoscale convective systems, to global climate change. He is working on the OCCRI regional climate modeling project. Dean holds a BA in Physics from SUNY Potsdam and an MS in Atmospheric Science from OSU. See Dean’s web page with vitae and publications.

Kim Carson – Program Assistant
email: kcarson@coas.oregonstate.edu
phone: 541-737-5705
Kim comes to OCCRI from The Freshwater Trust, where she was education coordinator for their office in the MidWillamette Valley. Focusing on environmental education, she has also worked as the Outdoor School Coordinator for the Corvallis, Oregon School District. Kim has an MA in art education and originally hails from Wisconsin. She lives on 50 acres of land south of Corvallis where she’s a restoration partner with the US Fish and Wildlife, working to contribute to rare and declining habitat of the Willamette Valley; her hobby is combating invasive species on her land.

Sihan (Meredith) Li – PhD Candidate
email: sli@coas.oregonstate.edu
Sihan (Meredith) is a graduate student in COAS working with Professor Mote on the regional climate modeling project, supported by a Climate Science Center fellowship and also the REACCH-PNA project. She earned a BS in Atmospheric Science from Yunnan University in Kunming, China, where she did research projects on heat flux in the Indo-Pacific warm pool and wavelet analysis of interdecadal variability.

Rachel Calmer – Student Assistant
Rachel is working on a BS in Natural Resources, with a minor in Spanish and a minor in Business and Entrepreneurship. She expects to graduate in Spring 2012.