Ph.D. student joins NCAR Graduate Visitor Program to examine the dynamics of hurricanes

Chibueze Nnamdi Oguejiofor

Civil and environmental engineering Ph.D. student Chibueze Nnamdi Oguejiofor is participating in the Graduate Visitor Program of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

The highly selective program gives advanced graduate students in atmospheric and related sciences and engineering the opportunity to collaborate for several months to a year with a NCAR host scientist at NCAR headquarters in Boulder, Colorado.

Chibueze’s interests focus on modeling the physics and dynamics of air-sea interaction in the context of rapidly intensifying hurricanes. He is working with senior scientist George Bryan at NCAR to understand the process of hurricane rapid intensification (RI).

“This is a process by which a hurricane gains strength very quickly — as we just saw Ian do this right before making landfall in Florida,” said David Richter, Chibueze’s advisor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Notre Dame.

“This ‘RI process’ is notoriously hard to predict, and forecast models often miss it, and so my lab, Chibueze, and the experts he’s working with at NCAR are aiming to understand the physics behind this process that will help us predict it better.”

Chibueze began his work at NCAR this fall, and he will return to Notre Dame in January.

— College of Engineering