Postdoc Represents Samueli School at National Event

June 29, 2015 – Civil and environmental engineering postdoctoral scholar Phu Dinh Nguyen represented the Samueli School’s Center for Hydrometeorology & Remote Sensing last month in Washington D.C. Nguyen was invited to participate in Weather Day on the Hill, sponsored by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities focused on atmospheric and related Earth system sciences.

The May 13-14 event was held to raise awareness about the work being done in the geosciences community. Participants, including national decision makers, industry leaders and researchers from U.S. universities, attended panel discussions and exhibits focused on the latest weather-related technology and advances in knowledge.

Nguyen, who says CHRS’s research products have been accessed by users from more than 100 countries, presented several of them at the event, including a global real-time precipitation observation system and its mobile device app; a global crowdsourced rainfall observation app, called iRain; and historical climate satellite precipitation data.

He says the opportunity to meet with senators, congressional members and Capitol Hill staffers is something he could never have imagined when he first came to the U.S. five years ago to begin a doctoral program at UCI. “I feel very honored to have been there to represent the UCI research community and to ensure that lawmakers appreciate [our work] with respect to the environment, climate, and water resources,” says Nguyen, who received a doctorate in water resources management last year from the Samueli School.

--Anna Lynn Spitzer