Dr. Sean W. Freeman

sean.freeman@uah.edu | SWIRLL 120 | 256.824.4026

I grew up in West Virginia and Kentucky and developed a love of technology and weather from a young age. Even though we lived far from the coast, I was tracking hurricanes on the wall in first grade while trying to figure out the best way to set up a radar viewer on our family's old computer. Because of my interests in both, I double majored in computer science and meteorology at Florida State in undergrad. While at FSU, I started to learn and understand how to combine these two interests. As a master's and PhD student at Colorado State, I continued using my interests and skills in both disciplines.

During my graduate work, I participated in three field campaigns (C3LOUD-Ex, CAMP2Ex, and BACS), where I learned to instrument and operate Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) and operations of aircraft and personnel. Despite my prolific participation in field work, my dissertation primarily focused on developing and using a tracking package (tobac) to elucidate relationships between environments and the convective storms that spawn in them. I finished my PhD at Colorado State University in June 2022 and was a postdoc at CSU, working on the INCUS satellite mission until the end of 2022.

I joined the Atmospheric and Earth Science faculty at The University of Alabama in Huntsville in January 2023. As a new faculty member, I am working to develop my research on the environments that spawn and control clouds and storms. These research discoveries are performed with numerical modeling, advanced data science tools such as tobac to uncover the basic building blocks of convection from models and observations, and new measurements of convective inflows and outflows with UAS. I enjoy hiking, traveling, baking, curling, playing other sports with my friends, and watching college football outside of work.

Education

Ph.D., Atmospheric Science

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 2022

M.S., Atmospheric Science

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 2018

B.S., Meteorology

Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 2015

B.S., Computer Science

Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 2015