Dr. Amy Huff (Lead Forecaster)
Dr. Huff has a background in experimental atmospheric chemistry and air quality meteorology. She obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 1998 and a M.S. in meteorology from Pennsylvania State University in 2007. During her academic career, Dr. Huff worked as an experimental chemist for over ten years, studying the stable isotope chemistry of atmospheric carbon monoxide and investigating the heterogeneous gas/ice chemical reactions that initiate ozone loss in the springtime Arctic troposphere. As part of her M.S. thesis work at Penn State, she conducted a statistical analysis of the operational performance of the NOAA-EPA National Air Quality Forecasting Capability (NAQFC) numerical ozone model in Philadelphia. After graduating from Penn State, she spent five years at Battelle Memorial Institute, where she worked on projects related to satellite remote sensing, air quality, climate change, and public health. Dr. Huff returned to Penn State in 2013, and she is now the lead forecaster in the Penn State Air Quality Forecast Office. She is a member of the NOAA Forecasters Focus Group that provides technical feedback to the developers of the NAQFC. At Penn State, Dr. Huff teaches undergraduate meteorology classes on air quality forecasting (METEO 419) and the principles of atmospheric measurements (METEO 440W). She is also the PI on a NOAA project that uses Earth-observing satellite data for air quality applications. In her free time, Dr. Huff enjoys leisure reading, running, and traveling with her friends.
Bill Ryan (Senior Forecaster)
Bill Ryan has been a leader in air quality forecasting in the Mid-Atlantic region for many years. He has an M.S. in Meteorology from the University of Maryland (1990) and a J. D. from the University of Chicago School of Law (1981). Mr. Ryan has worked in the air quality modeling, data analysis, and forecasting fields since 1990, first as a research scientist in the Air Chemistry Group at the University of Maryland, and, since 2000, at the Department of Meteorology at The Pennsylvania State University, where he founded the Penn State Air Quality Forecast Office. He has been an operational air quality forecaster for the Mid-Atlantic region since 1993, including for the Baltimore and Washington DC areas from 1993 to 2003 and for Philadelphia and Delaware since 1996. Mr. Ryan has published a number of peer reviewed papers on forecasting techniques as well as observational studies of the production and transport of regional O3, and he is currently working on improvements to O3 and PM2.5 forecasting techniques. In 2010, he was named the EPA AIRNow “Partner of the Year.” Mr. Ryan also developed and teaches a senior level undergraduate course on Numerical Weather Prediction at Penn State.
James Enlow (Junior Forecaster)
James Enlow recently graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. degree in Meteorology. James was the 2017 summer forecasting intern for the Penn State Air Quality Forecast Office, and in summer 2018, he is returning as a Junior Forecaster. James was born and raised in Armbrust, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh. Ever since he was a child, James wanted to attend Penn State, but he wasn’t certain what to study until 2011, when an EF2 tornado touched down about 5 miles from his house. Witnessing the power of a tornado first hand sparked his passionate interest in weather. At Penn State, James was an active participant in WxChallenge, the North American collegiate weather forecasting competition. He was among the top 10 forecasters in the nation for the 2016-2017 season. James was also a member of the Penn State Campus Weather Service and the Storm Chase Club. His career goal is a position as a weather forecaster in the public or private sector.