Nic Wilson's Biography
I have been fascinated with weather since 3rd grade when I was just 8 miles from the 1990 Plainfield, IL F5 tornado when growing up in Naperville, a southwest suburb of Chicago. As I grew up you could usually find me watching The Weather Channel and keeping an eye on the ominous skies around Chicago in the late spring and summer. Eventually, my soccer talents and motivations to study atmospheric sciences took me to Creighton University in the fall of 2000. As far as I know, I am the only storm chaser that has played a Division I college sport, as I went to two men's soccer final fours during my career at Creighton from 2000-2003. I graduated in May 2004 Magna Cum Laude from Creighton University with a B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences. Following graduation I received a research assistantship at the historic University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology. I just finished my first year of graduate studies and will be working this summer at NCAR in Boulder, CO. Due to soccer commitments, I was never able to chase more than once or twice a year previously. Now that my competitive career is over I have been able to chase much more frequently this spring and have not let the record-breaking lack of severe weather in Oklahoma keep my spirits down. I look forward to chasing some in Colorado this summer and plan on finishing my Master's degree in May of 2006. From there I hope to work in the private sector of meteorology or continue on in school to pursue my PhD. Feel free to email me at nwilson@ou.edu if you'd like to get in touch!
Photos of me storm chasing from this Spring 2005 (photos courtesy of my chase partner Eric Holthaus)
Learn more about my research here