HAO Staff

Thomas Berger

whawkins — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 21:14:00 +0000

Thomas Berger whawkins Thu, 12/04/2025 - 14:14

Senior Research Scientist

Dr. Berger is a Senior Research Scientist in the High Altitude Observatory at NCAR and the director of the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory. He is the former director of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center and is a recognized expert in space weather forecasting research with an emphasis of space weather impacts on low earth orbit (LEO) satellite operations. He leads the NASA Space Weather Operational Readiness Development (SWORD) center of excellence, a multi-institution research effort working to improve upper atmospheric forecasting through model coupling, data assimilation, and machine learning. Dr. Berger is also an expert in machine learning applied to space weather forecasting and is a principal editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research, Machine Learning and Computation.

Nikhil Rao

whawkins — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 15:42:46 +0000

Nikhil Rao whawkins Tue, 07/29/2025 - 09:42

Soft Eng/Prog I

Organization

NSF NCAR/HAO

nikhilr@ucar.edu

Nikhil Rao is a passionate Software Engineer at the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) specializing in crafting Python tools, automation, and workflows for High‑Performance Computing (HPC) environments.

He currently supports the Center for Geospace Storms (CGS) on the MAGE, TIE‑GCM, and WACCM‑X atmospheric models, and is integrating modern machine‑learning methods into HAO’s scientific pipelines.

Nikhil received his M.S. in Cybersecurity from the University of Delaware in 2023 and is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at UD, where his research focuses on the intersection of machine learning and HPC.

He enjoys building production-quality research software that helps scientists run faster, analyze smarter, and reproduce results more easily.

Jordi Vila-Pérez

whawkins — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 18:25:20 +0000

Jordi Vila-Pérez whawkins Tue, 01/28/2025 - 11:25

Scientist III

Organization

NSF NCAR/HAO

jvilap@ucar.edu

Employee Page

Curriculum vitae, publications, metrics

Jordi Vila-Pérez

Dr. Jordi Vila-Pérez is a scientist in the High Altitude Observatory (HAO), specializing in the development of advanced numerical methods to study the ionosphere and thermosphere. His research spans a wide range of computational techniques, from traditional discretization methods –such as finite volume and finite difference schemes, as well as high-order continuous and discontinuous Galerkin methods– to modern machine learning approaches. He applies these methodologies to investigate the dynamics of the upper atmosphere and to analyze compressible aerodynamics.

Before joining NSF NCAR/HAO, Dr. Vila-Pérez was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, where he worked on developing GPU-based high-fidelity methods and applying them to space weather modeling. Previously, he earned his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, in Barcelona, in 2021, focusing on low and high-order hybridized methods for compressible flows. He also holds a Bachelor’s double degree in Mathematics and Aerospace Engineering, as well as a Master's in Applied Mathematics from the same university, completed in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Nir Patel

whawkins — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 18:39:21 +0000

Nir Patel whawkins Wed, 02/07/2024 - 11:39

Engineer II

Organization

NSF NCAR/HAO

nirpatel@ucar.edu

Employee Page

Curriculum vitae, publications, metrics

Nir Patel is a multi-disciplinary systems engineer within the instrumentation group in the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) who works between systems, thermal, and mechanical engineering. His previous experiences include working as a systems engineer for the Boeing Commercial Engine Replacement Program and a mechanical lead engineer for the SPectral Ocean Color Imaging (SPOC) CubeSat at the University of Georgia. Nir has acquired his bachelors of science in Mechanical Engineering from UGA and his Masters of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Andrew Skumanich

whawkins — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 22:36:44 +0000

Andrew Skumanich whawkins Fri, 02/02/2024 - 15:36

Senior Scientist Emeritus

Organization

NSF NCAR/HAO

sku@ucar.edu

Employee Page

Publications

Dr. Andrew Skumanich has worked at the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) since 1961. Andy is a major innovator and contributor to the advancement of solar-stellar astrophysics. In February 1972 the Astrophysical Journal published his article titled "Time Scales for Ca II Emission Decay, Rotational Braking, and Lithium Depletion". The paper is one of the most impactful publications in the history of HAO, with more than 1500 citations to date. On the 50th anniversary of its publication, Andy was awarded a certificate of congratulatory commendations by the AAS which read, “The Editors of the Journals of the American Astronomical Society ...[acknowledge the] famous and highly cited paper …[which] has had profound influence on the development of stellar astrophysics in the intervening years.” In September 2023, Andy published his memoir, "My Rewarding Life in Science" (Springer article). HAO highlighted his memoir in a recent news article.

Elizabeth Bernhardt

whawkins — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 20:24:11 +0000

Elizabeth Bernhardt whawkins Fri, 02/02/2024 - 13:24

Engineer I

Organization

NSF NCAR/HAO

embern@ucar.edu

Liz is a cross-discipline engineer in the High Altitude Observatory Instrumentation Group, working more closely in the electrical and mechanical areas. Liz attended the University of Colorado at Boulder for a B.A. in Astronomy. She previously served in the US Marine Corps as an avionics technician on F/A-18s.

Marlene DiMarco

whawkins — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 22:28:08 +0000

Marlene DiMarco whawkins Thu, 02/01/2024 - 15:28

Budget Analyst I

Organization

NSF NCAR/HAO

mdimarco@ucar.edu

Employee Page

Education

Marlene DiMarco is a Budget Analyst in the High Altitude Observatory with over a decade of experience.

Maurice Wilson

whawkins — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 20:22:01 +0000

Maurice Wilson whawkins Tue, 09/13/2022 - 14:22

Scientist IV

Organization

NSF NCAR/HAO

mauricew@ucar.edu

Employee Page

Curriculum vitae, publications, metrics

Maurice Wilson is a scientist in the High Altitude Observatory (HAO). He specializes in using spectroscopic techniques to conduct research across various subfields of astrophysics, instrumentation, and solar physics. More specifically, his primary research interests with studying spectra include the following:

Energy budget and extended heating of solar CMEs.
Detection and characterization of stellar CMEs and exoplanets.
High precision photometry and Doppler spectroscopy pipelines.

He obtained his Ph.D. in astronomy from the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in 2022. He is currently using the spectropolarimetry from the Upgraded Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter (UCoMP) of the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO) to study the evolving energy budget and magnetic field orientation of solar CMEs.

Personal website

Lisa Perez-Gonzalez

whawkins — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:52:14 +0000

Lisa Perez-Gonzalez whawkins Fri, 08/26/2022 - 14:52

Scientist II

Organization

NSF NCAR/HAO

lisapg@ucar.edu

808-935-0533

Employee Page

Curriculum vitae, publications, metrics

Lisa Perez-Gonzalez at the MLSO observatory.

Lisa M. Perez-Gonzalez is a scientist at the High Altitude Observatory's Mauna Loa Solar Observatory on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Soudeh Kamali

whawkins — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:43:11 +0000

Soudeh Kamali whawkins Fri, 08/26/2022 - 14:43

Engineering Scientist IV

Organization

NSF NCAR/HAO

skamali@ucar.edu

Employee Page

Curriculum vitae, publications, metrics

Soudeh Kamali

Soudeh is an Engineering Scientist in the High Altitude Observatory (HAO). Soudeh has a PhD in mechanical engineering focused on computational fluid dynamics and is interested in interdisciplinary research. Currently she is working on the development of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) with the the non-hydrostatic Model for Prediction Across Scales-Atmosphere (MPAS-A) dynamical core. This work is done as part of the NSF NCAR System for Integrated Modeling of the Atmosphere (SIMA) project.

HAO Staff

Thomas Berger

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Nikhil Rao

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Jordi Vila-Pérez

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Nir Patel

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Andrew Skumanich

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Elizabeth Bernhardt

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Marlene DiMarco

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Maurice Wilson

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Lisa Perez-Gonzalez

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Soudeh Kamali

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