Phone

(405) 325-1898

Office

NWC 4226

E-mail

dzaras@ou.edu

Website

http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Daphne.S.LaDue-1/

Biography

I am quite a unique individual in the atmospheric sciences field by having: conducted basic and applied atmospheric (1992 to 1998) and social science (2010 to present) research, served for 18 years as PI and director of one of the most respected NSF-funded National Weather Center Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NWC REU) programs in the NSF Geosciences Directorate (2001 to present and completed doctoral work in adult and higher education on professional learning and learning to gain expertise (Ph.D. completed 2011. As the director and PI of the NWC REU program, I have dedicated many years and significant creative energy to recruitment, selection, and program design. My research background and doctoral studies have led me to add a research perspective to the evaluation of the program. In a state where it is challenging to promote diversity, I increased the number of participants from groups underrepresented in the atmospheric sciences and provided good experiences for them. Having faced my own unique challenges of being on the leading edge of a wave of white women entering the geoscience workforce and being an avid reader of experiences outside my own, I have deep empathy and passion for increasing representation of diverse groups into the geosciences. Just as important, I have an infectious passion for, and curiosity about science involving the natural world and how we live within it. My background in physics and atmospheric science include work on a wide range of research from studying the radiation budget over the Sahara and Saudi Arabian deserts to mesospheric ozone chemical kinetics, atmospheric precipitable water, and severe storm tracking. The past 13 years of my career led me back to research on emerging scientific and societal issues of how emergency managers and weather forecasters think about and make decisions from weather data.