Personnel
The High Plains Regional Climate Center has an experienced team of climatologists, IT professionals, graduate students, and undergraduate interns that are all committed to serving the region. On this page you can learn more about the background of each person on the Center's team.
Rezaul Mahmood, Ph.D.
Director
Phone: (402) 472-6166
Contact Rezaul
B.Sc. University of Dhaka
M.Sc. University of Dhaka
M.A. State University of New York, Albany, NY
Ph.D. University of Oklahoma
Dr. Rezaul Mahmood joined UNL in 2018. He provides leadership in development of climate data products and climate data-based decision tools and outreach and engagement activities. Rezaul regularly communicates with partners from local, state, regional, and national levels, users from private and public sectors, and decision and policy makers to address their needs. Before joining HPRCC and UNL he was a professor at the Western Kentucky University (WKU; 2001-2018). Rezaul led and promoted the idea of developing a mesonet for Kentucky, led its base funding initiative and network design, and after securing funding jointly led its implementation and network’s sustainability efforts. In this capacity he regularly engaged and communicated with users and stakeholders from all levels and also with decision and policy makers. He provided similar leadership in the development of WKU’s High Performance Computing Center and contributed significantly to the development of the Meteorology Program. He has published 90+ peer-reviewed papers in highly respected journals. His research has been funded by the NSF, NOAA, USDA-ARS, and others. Rezaul served as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal ‘Earth Interactions’, jointly published by the American Meteorological Society (AMS), American Geophysical Union (AGU), and American Association of Geographers (AAG) from 2009-2021. Rezaul was a member of the National Climate Assessment and Development Committee (NCADAC) during 2011-2014 and guided completion of the Third National Climate Assessment report. Right after finishing his PhD., Rezaul was a postdoctoral research scientist at the HPRCC from 1999 to 2001.
Climatology Staff
Gannon Rush
Climatologist
Phone: (402) 472-6764
Contact Gannon
B.A. University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Gannon is a Climatologist at the High Plains Regional Climate Center. In this position, he provides climate services for the Center, working closely with stakeholders and partners on climate monitoring.
Daniel Whitesel
Climatologist
Phone: (402) 472-5355
Contact Daniel
B.A. Western Kentucky University
M.S. University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Daniel has a joint appointment with the HPRCC and NDMC (National Drought Mitigation Center). He performs research related tasks for both HPRCC and NDMC. Daniel’s research leads to development of new climate-decision tools. Research topics include heat, droughts, precipitation, and atmospheric model applications.
Technical Staff
William Sorensen
Senior Applications/Systems Programmer
Phone: (402) 472-8767
Contact William
B.S. University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Bill is responsible for development and maintenance of software for acquiring, storing, managing, and distributing climate data. He provides scientific programming skills in support of applied climate research and product development efforts. He is also involved in development of climate applications and is the HPRCC's representative on the software development team for the Applied Climate Information System project.
Shellie is responsible for quality control monitoring of incoming hourly and daily data from the Automated Weather Data Network (AWDN), involving the states of Nebraska; Colorado; Kansas; Iowa; South Dakota; North Dakota and Wyoming. She also assists in the preparation of data requests, data entry, and the retrieval of climate data. Shelllie looks for any significant weather impacts in the region for the monthly newsletter, and provides notary services when a certified document is required.
Jamie is responsible for the management and development of the Automated Weather Data Network. Many of his tasks include addition and removal of new stations, maintenance of storage and retrieval system, and corrections to current data archive. Mr. Lahowetz stays in contact with state mesonets in order to keep data and specifics of stations up-to-date.
Warren Pettee
Applications Programmer
Phone: (402) 472-8885
Contact Warren
B.S. University of North Carolina at Charlotte
M.S. University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Warren develops new products for end-users in both the web front-end and through server-side software solutions. He works with HPRCC staff to turn research and stakeholder needs into modern tools for end-users. Warren is responsible for on-going development of the ACIS Climate Summary Maps, GIS products, and HPRCC's online tools.
Interns
Page Nippert
Graduate Students
Chanchal Gupta
PhD. Student
Chanchal Gupta is a doctoral student within the School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is conducting her research under the guidance of the HPRCC Director Dr. Rezaul Mahmood. Chanchal’s research focuses on precipitation climatology. She will use multiple-precipitation data products from various sources to complete her research. She received her bachelor’s degree in Geography (Hons.) from the University of Delhi in 2014 and Master’s in Geoinformatics from TERI School of Advanced Studies in 2016. Prior to joining HPRCC Chanchal worked as a researcher at the Indian Institute of Science focusing on water resources, hydrological modeling, climate change and application of RS&GIS in these areas. She likes traveling, painting, and gardening.
Syeda Tasneem Binta Haider
PhD. Student
Syeda Tasneem Binta Haider is a doctoral student in the School of Natural Resources. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Climate Assessment and Impacts specialization under the supervision of Director Dr. Rezaul Mahmood. Her research interest is in climatic impacts of land use and land cover change and climatology.
