Rachel H. White

Rachel H. White

Assistant Professor, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences

Rachel leads the UBC Climate Dynamics group here at UBC. Her research interests are based in large-scale atmospheric dynamics, and currently she is most interested in understanding the connections between atmospheric circulation and extreme weather events and how we can use these connections to provide better predictions of extreme weather events and to better understand how anthropogenic climate change will affect weather extremes. She runs and analyzes results from climate models, and analyzes data from atmospheric observations to explore a wide variety of questions about our climate, from: How accurately can we predict the probability of summer heat waves weeks to months in advance? to: What differences would we see in atmospheric circulation patterns if the Earth rotated backwards? For more information, including her plans to combine climate outreach with aerial circus, click here.

Email: rwhite at eoas dot ubc dot ca
CV
Google Scholar
UBC EOAS Profile

Cuiyi Fei

PhD student

Cuiyi is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Atmospheric Science at UBC with Prof. Rachel White. Her research focuses on midlatitude atmospheric dynamics, particularly quasi-stationary Rossby waves. She has analyzed large ensemble climate model output and conducted a series of idealized experiments to investigate the mechanisms of quasi-stationary waves, assess model performance, and diagnose underlying biases. In addition, she is working on an interdisciplinary project with Prof. Ethan Raker, exploring the relationship between heatwaves and demographics. Cuiyi earned her BSc in Atmospheric Science from Sun Yat-Sen University in China in 2020. During that time, she explored various research directions before ultimately focusing on atmospheric dynamics. Read more about Cuiyi and her research here.

Email: cfei at eoas dot ubc dot ca

Eliott Roocroft

PhD student

Eliott is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Atmospheric Science at UBC with Prof. Rachel White. His research focuses on the links between midlatitude atmospheric circulation patterns and extreme events. He has analysed the links between various different metrics of jet stream waviness and extreme temperature events. He is currently investigating the intermodel spread of climate models on the links between jet stream waviness and extreme temperatures, and the future trends on association between jet stream waviness and extreme temperature. Eliott earned his Master’s degree in Geophysics from Imperial College London and has previously worked as a catastrophe modeller for a Lloyd’s of London syndicate. Read more about Eliott and his research here.

Email: eroocroft at eoas dot ubc dot ca

Lualawi Mareshet Admasu

PhD student

Lualawi is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Atmospheric Science at UBC. His research focuses on the link between atmospheric circulation and extreme events. He is currently investigating the role of quasi-stationary Rossby waves, persistent atmospheric circulation features, in shaping the predictability and timing of temperature extremes. He has a strong passion for outreach and public engagement, especially in climate justice, mitigation and adaptation efforts, and other social issues like equity and diversity efforts. Lualawi acquired his Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Addis Ababa Institute of Technology in Ethiopia and later his Master's degree in Water Resources Engineering from Katholieke Universtiet Leuven in Belgium. Read more about Lualawi and his research here.

Email: ladmasu at eoas dot ubc dot ca
UBC EOAS Profile

Taylor Swift-LaPointe

PhD student

Taylor is a first-year PhD student in Atmospheric Science at UBC. Her current research focuses on atmospheric dynamics of early season heatwaves, including their representation in climate models, impacts on subsequent heatwaves in the summer, and impacts on wildfire-prone conditions. Taylor completed an MSc in Atmospheric Science with Dr. White in November 2024, where she worked on seasonal forecasting of streamflow in the Columbia River basin using a hybrid statistical-dynamical forecast with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks. Read more about Taylor and her research here.

Email: tswiftlapointe at eoas dot ubc dot ca
UBC EOAS Profile

Lynn Engel

PhD student

Lynn is a second-year PhD student in Atmospheric Science at UBC. She is co-supervised by Dr. Roland Stull and Dr. Rachel White and you can find her on campus at the Weather Forecast Research Team laboratory. Lynn's research Improving Winter Forecast Temperatures in the Peace Region of Alberta and British Columbia, funded by BC Hydro and MITACS, is crucial for enhancing extreme winter temperature forecasts in the region. Improving winter temperature forecasting is vital to BC Hydro for several reasons: first, to ensure the safety of residents in the town of Peace River, Alberta, where ice jamming and flooding hazards occur on the Peace River; and second, to optimize hydroelectric power generation by better managing water resources. However, accurate forecasts in this region are challenging due to Arctic air masses, downslope windstorms, and complex terrain. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, her work enhances mesoscale weather prediction, with a focus on cold-air damming and Chinook events.

To address the scarcity of weather observations, particularly in the vertical domain, Lynn initiated and led a winter fieldwork campaign, launching radiosonde balloons multiple times daily in varying air masses, and ice conditions along the Peace River.

Lynn has been a registered geoscience professional for over 20 years and previously worked as a geophysicist in the Canadian Oil and Gas industry. Her technical background includes seismic interpretation of complex geology worldwide, utilizing advanced techniques such as seismic inversion, machine learning, and 3D visualization for subsurface analysis. She also has experience in risk analysis, investment, and asset management.

Lynn holds a B.Sc. in Applied Physics/Geophysics from the University of Waterloo. She transitioned to graduate studies and completed her M.Sc. in Geosciences with a specialization in Applied Meteorology from Mississippi State University in August 2023.

Read more about Lynn and her research here. For inquiries, she can be reached via email or LinkedIn.
Email: lengel at eoas dot ubc dot ca
UBC EOAS Profile
LinkedIn

Ted Scott

PhD student

Ted is a second-year PhD student in Geography at UBC. His current research focuses on quantifying the changing experience of the summer season globally, regionally, and across different land surface types as the climate warms. He is co-supervised by Dr. Simon Donner in the UBC Department of Geography. Read more about Ted and his research here.

Email: tedjs at student dot ubc dot ca
UBC Geography Profile

Jeremy Chung

MSc student

Jeremy is a second-year course-based MSc student in Atmospheric Science at UBC. His research project focuses on visualizations of heat vulnerability in Vancouver to better understand what the spatial patterns are. Jeremy also has a strong interest in science communication and is the course coordinator for EOSC 111, a laboratory course that explores various topics in earth sciences at UBC. Read more about Jeremy and his work here.

Email: jchung at eoas dot ubc dot ca
UBC EOAS Profile

Shauna Ndoping

Undergraduate student

Shauna is a fourth-year undergraduate student in Atmospheric Science at UBC. She is committed to expanding her knowledge of the world as it pertains to weather and climate. Her current academic interests include weather analysis, extreme weather, climate change, and climate adaptation. Currently, she is working with Dr. White to quantitatively define the impact of near-solstice solar radiation on the Pacific Northwest heatwave event of 2021.

Email: sndoping at student dot ubc dot ca

Jamie Robson

Undergraduate student

Jamie is a third-year undergraduate student in Honours Geophysics at UBC. Her research focuses on understanding dynamical temperature trends in the midlatitudes. She has also looked into what factors (such as solar radiation) influence record breaking heatwaves.

Email: jrobso01 at student dot ubc dot ca

Sayana Imash

Undergraduate student

Sayana is a fifth-year undergraduate student pursuing a combined degree in Physics and Oceanography at UBC. She is passionate about the intersections of Earth and ocean sciences, natural resource conservation, climate activism, and social justice. Her keen interest in climate science deepened in 2023 after taking a climate change course with Dr. Rachel White, which led her to join the Climate Dynamics Group as an undergraduate research assistant. Her current project involves analyzing geopotential height anomalies in multiple climate models and reanalysis datasets to assess how accurately these models capture atmospheric variability. In her free time, when she is not doing cool climate modelling work, she loves backpacking, playing music with her band and dancing! Occasionally, you can find her starting another new (and unsuccessful) crocheting or baking project. Sayana is open for collaboration and learning; please feel free to reach out to her at the email below.

Email: saituumi at eoas dot ubc dot ca