George Lynn Cross Research Professor Robert. E. Lowry Chair Professor CIMMS Faculty Associate School of Meteorology The University of Oklahoma Norman, OK, USA, 73072 Office:  NWC 5106 Phone:  (405) 325-0596 Email:  lmleslie[at]ou.edu

Visiting Professorial Fellow Climate Change Research Center The University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2052 Adjunct Professor Australian Sustainable Development Institute Curtin University Bentley, WA, Australia, 6102

About Me

My research interests lie in a broad range of areas spanning meteorology and oceanography. Some of my specific interests include computational fluid dynamics (specifically, numerical weather prediction and climate modeling), severe weather, tropical meteorology, data assimilation, and coupled models of the atmosphere, oceans, and land surface. More recently, my research interests have expanded to include generalized rheologies, such as debris flows (e.g., landslides and mudslides) triggered by heavy rainfall events. This research has been tied to recent mudslides in Southern California, China, and elsewhere. Other rheologies include glaciers and ice sheets in Antartica and Greenland, and, for future work, lava and magma flows. My research has been funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Energy (DoE), and a range of other agencies.

I received my PhD in mathematics from Monash University in 1970, with a thesis entitled "On Rotating Flows." Afterwards, I spent a year as a postdoc in the Mathematics Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and became a Senior Principal Research Scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology in 1971. I was a Visiting Research Fellow at Imperial College London in 1976, 1979, and 1981, and a Visiting Research Scientist at the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1987. In 1994, I was appointed as a Chair Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where I founded and was director of the Center for Environmental Modeling and Prediction (CEMAP). CEMAP has now been absorbed by the Climate Change Research Center (CCRC), of which I have been a Visiting Professorial Fellow since 2011. I have been the Robert E. Lowry Chair Professor of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma since 2002, and a George Lynn Cross Research Professor since 2008. I have also been an Adjunct Professor at Curtin University since 2007, and a Faculty Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) since 2012.

Education

B.A. (Philosophy of Science), University of Melbourne, 1979
Ph.D. (Mathematics), Monash University, 1970
M.S. (Mathematics), University of Sydney, 1968
B.S. (Mathematics), University of Sydney, 1966

News

• June, 2014: Our paper, "Seasonal-to-Interannual Variability of Ethiopia/Horn of Africa Monsoon. Part II: Statistical Multi-Model Ensemble Rainfall Predictions", has been accepted by the Journal of Climate.
• June, 2014: Our paper, "Effects of Waves on Tabular Ice-Shelf Calving", has been accepted by the Earth Interactions Journal.
• June, 2014: Our paper, "Cluster Analysis of North Atlantic Tropical Cyclones", has been accepted by the Complex Adaptive Systems Conference.
• June, 2014: Our paper, "Attribution and prediction of maximum temperature extremes in SE Australia", has been accepted by the Complex Adaptive Systems Conference.
• June, 2014: Our paper, "Seasonal Tropical Cyclone Predictions Using Optimized Combinations of ENSO Regions: Application to the Coral Sea Basin", has been accepted by the Journal of Climate.
• June, 2014: Our paper, "Sensitivity of Tropical Cyclone Tracks and Intensity to Ocean Surface Temperature", has been accepted by Tellus.
• April, 2014: Issa Lele passed PhD thesis defense
• April, 2014: Irenea Lodangco passed PhD thesis defense

Publications

See my publication page. You can also visit my Google Scholar Profile for a less (or maybe more) up-to-date list.

Teaching

Present

• Introduction to Meteorology II (METR 2023), Spring, 2014

Recent Past

• Advanced Tropical Meteorology (METR 5453), Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
• Numerical Weather Prediction (METR 6333), Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Spring 2011

Students

Present

• Irenea Lodangco (PhD, co-advised with Prof. Peter Lamb) -- passed thesis defense April, 2014
• Issa Lele (PhD, co-advised with Prof. Peter Lamb) -- passed thesis defense April, 2014
• Esther Mullens (PhD, co-advised with Prof. Peter Lamb)

Past

• Mason Rowell (MS, 2013). Currently a PhD student at the University of Oklahoma.
• Stacey Hitchcock (MS, 2013). Currently a PhD student at the University of Oklahoma.
• Zewdu Segele (PhD, 2010). Currently a research scientist at OU-CIMMS
• Chad Shafer (PhD, 2009). Currently an assistant professor at the University of Southern Alabama.
• Andrew Mercer (PhD, 2009). Currently an assistant professor at Mississippi State University.
• Hamish Ramsay(PhD, 2008). Currently a lecturer at Monash University. Previously at Columbia University.
• Alexander Fierro (PhD, 2007). Currently a research scientist at the University of Oklahoma.
• Stephanie Verbout (MS, 2007). Whereabouts unknown.
• Bradford Barrett (PhD, 2007). Currently an assistant professor at the United States Naval Academy.
• Christopher Godfrey (PhD, 2007). Currently an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Asheville.
• Andrew Taylor (PhD, 2005). Currently a science & operations officer at the National Weather Service.
• Bruce Buckley (PhD, 2000). Currently a principal research analyst at the Insurance Australia Group.
• Milton Speer (PhD, 1998). Currently a visiting research fellow at the University of New South Wales.
• Yuqing Wang (PhD, 1996). Currently a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
• Russel Morison (MS, 1994). Currently a senior research scientist at the University of New South Wales.
• Amanda Lynch (BSc Honors, 1986). Currently a professor at Brown University.
• Geoff Vallis (PhD, 1980). Currently a professor at Princeton University.
• John Marshall (PhD, 1980). Currently a professor at MIT.

Awards and Honors

• Best Paper award, Theoretical Developments in Computational Intelligence, Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering, St. Louis, 2010.
• George Lynn Cross Research Professorship, University of Oklahoma, 2008
• Sustainability Prize, Woodside Petroleum Ltd., 2007
• CEO's Prize. Woodside Petroleum Ltd., 2007
• President’s International Travel Fellowship, University of Oklahoma, 2005
• Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), 2005
• Australian Meteorological & Oceanographic Society (AMOS) Medal, 2002
• Robert E. Lowry Endowed Chair, University of Oklahoma, 2002
• Reader, Australian Research Council (ARC), 2001
• Innovation Award, Sydney, Australia, 1999
• Elected Fellow, Eurasian Academy of Science, Beijing, China, 1997
• Anthony Mason Fellowship, 1996
• Australian Research Council (ARC) Special Investigator, 1995
• Max Planck Research Award, Bonn, Germany, 1994
• Award for Contributions to Space Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1987
• Commonwealth Foundation Award for Outstanding Young Scientist, 1976
• Sydney University Traveling Scholarship, Sydney University, 1966
• Barker Prize, Sydney University, 1966
• University Medal, Sydney University, 1966

Professional Research Activities

• Chair, Advisory Committee, CAPS, School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma (2008-present)
• Member, Committee A, School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma (2004-present)
• Member, Graduate Studies Committee, School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma (2003-2004)
• Member, International Advisory Board, Shanghai Typhoon Institute, Chinese Meteorological Agency, PRC (2002-present)
• Chair, President’s Postdoctoral Committee, University of New South Wales, Sydney (1998-2001)
• Chair, World Meteorological Organisation Committee for Comparison of Regional Model Experiments (COMPARE) (1997-present)
• Director, Centre for Environmental Modelling and Prediction, UNSW (1996-present)
• Deputy Director, Centre for Advanced Numerical Computation in Engineering and Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney (1995-1997)
• Member, NOAA Visualization Laboratory (VisLab.) (1995-2001)
• Member, Sydney University's High Performance Computing Committee (1995-2001)
• Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Water Resources Laboratory, NSW EPA (1994-1996)
• Editor, Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics (1992-present)
• Member, Australian Government Greenhouse Advisory Committee (1988- 1996)