#international

Our Guest: Jim Steenburgh

"Being a guest professor allows me to focus on what's important: working with students, serving as a teacher and mentor, and doing collaborative science."

 

Innsbruck – City and Inspiration

Innsbruck for me feels very much like a home away from home. We lived here for six months when I was a Fulbright Scholar in 2019 and try to return whenever we can. We love the mountains, active lifestyle, and car-free living.

 

Personal Insights – What Drives Me

I've loved snow my whole life and I've been fortunate to spend my career studying and developing new techniques for forecasting winter storms in mountainous regions. Everything I do is so that I never miss a deep powder day!

 

My Research – Passions and Discoveries

I'm interested in mountain weather and climate, especially snow and winter storms. We've worked in Utah, which is known for the "Greatest Snow on Earth"; Tug Hill in upstate New York, which observes the most intense snowstorms on Earth; and western Japan, which is probably the greatest snow climate on Earth. These are areas that can see intense, sometimes highly localized snowfall. Sometimes you can go from clear skies to 10 cm/hour snowfall rates in just a few kilometers. My research strives to explain how that happens and how we better forecast such storms.

 

Academic Career – Journey and Motivation

This is my 30th year as a professor. At least in the US, it's a harder job than it used to be. Being a guest professor allows me to focus on what's important: working with students, serving as a teacher and mentor, and doing collaborative science. And in the Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences, there are many faculty, staff, and students who share my passion for mountain weather and snow.

 

Teaching and Mentoring – Responsibility and Encouragement

My primary philosophy as a teacher is to use the energy and passion that I have for the atmospheric sciences, the innate interest that many people have in meteorology, and the endless stream of high-impact weather and climate events happening nearly every day to empower students to understand, diagnose, and predict weather and climate. Given the incredible natural setting of the University of Utah, I strongly emphasize mountain weather and climate, especially precipitation and snow, and this translates very well to the University of Innsbruck! I get great ideas for class just walking to campus.