John Leeman joined the Unidata Program Center software development team on January 30th, 2017. John obtained bachelor's degrees in meteorology and geophysics from the University of Oklahoma in 2012, and a PhD in geoscience from Penn State in 2017. He has worked in research fields ranging from gas hydrate thermodynamics to SODAR and boundary layer instrumentation, and did his doctoral work in earthquake physics. John's software development experience includes work on the seafloor process simulator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and telemetry analysis tools for NASA's Morpheus lunar lander project. The common thread amongst all of these projects was “the development of new tools and software to attack previously intractable problems.”

As a researcher himself, John brings first-hand knowledge of how scientists want to interact with their research tools to Unidata. He joined the Unidata Program Center because, he says, “making well tested and reliable tools with which to conduct reproducible science is probably the largest challenge and most needed area of innovation in research today.”

The Unidata Program Center's two summer student interns — Kristen Pozsonyi from Millersville University and Alex Haberlie from Northern Illinois University — have come to the end of their summer appointments. After a summer of dedicated work they presented the results of their projects to the UPC staff on July 29, 2016.

Matt Perna

By Larissa Gordon

Matthew Perna joined the Unidata Program Center (UPC) team on June 6th of 2016 as a systems administrator. A native New Yorker, he moved to Fort Collins, CO from Long Island, NY in April, 2016.

Matt attended the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University before he earned his first Microsoft Systems Engineer (MCSE) in 1998. Since then, he has accrued 21 certifications for Microsoft system engineering.

The Unidata Program Center is hiring! We are looking for a scientific Python developer to join our team in creating and maintaining software and data services to support the geosciences.

As part of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder, CO, Unidata offers competitive salaries and great benefits. UCAR was selected as one of the Best Companies to Work For in Colorado. Simply put, Unidata is a great place to work. Unidata's team environment provides high levels of autonomy and responsibility with great opportunity to excel individually and contribute to the team's success.

Kristen Pozsonyi

Kristen Pozsonyi joined the Unidata Program Center team as a software development summer intern May 23rd, 2016. Kristen is currently working on her Bachelor's degree in Meteorology from Millersville University, with minors in Computer Science and Mathematics.