CV

Work Experience

• Invited lecturer, University of Nova Gorica, Vipava, Slovenia (2024)
  Subject: Fundamentals of Environmental Science (Host: Dr. Erika Jež)
  

• Invited lecturer, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2024)
  Subject: Climate Change (Host: Dr. Žiga Zaplotnik)
  

• Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Center for Climate Systems Research, Earth Institute, Columbia University and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York City, New York (2021 – 2023)
  Project: Evaluating and Constraining Models’ Stratocumulus and Cumulus Cloud Feedbacks in the Tropics using Satellite Observations to Reduce Uncertainties in Future Climate Projections of NOAA Climate Sensitivity Task Force
  Advisors: Dr. Grégory Cesana, Prof. Dr. Robert Pincus, Dr. Andrew Ackerman

• Meteorologist, Slovenian Environment Agency, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2020 – 2021)
  Section for meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic modeling:
  Project: South-East European Multi-Hazard Early Warning Advisory System (SEE-MHEWS) of World Meteorological Organization
  Section for meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic forecasts:
  Project: Electronic General Aviation FORecast (eGAFOR)
  

• Visiting Scientist, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California (April – May 2015)
  Research visit to Prof. Dr. Michael Montgomery (Department of Meteorology) to conduct collaborative work on tropical cyclone dynamics using high-resolution numerical modeling
  Attended NASA Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Science Team Meeting, NASA Ames Research Park, Mountain View, California

Education

• Doctor of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany (2016 – 2019/2020)
  Dissertation: Towards an improved treatment of unresolved cloud-radiation interaction in weather and climate models
  Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Mayer, Prof. Dr. George Craig
  Research group: Remote sensing and radiative transfer, Meteorological Institute Munich

• Master of Science, Meteorology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany (2013 – 2015)
  Thesis: Dependence of tropical cyclone intensification on latitude and sea surface temperature
  Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Roger K. Smith, Dr. Gerard Kilroy
  Research group: Tropical meteorology, Meteorological Institute Munich

• Bachelor of Science, Meteorology with Geophysics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (2011 – 2014)
  Seminar: North Atlantic Oscillation
  Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nedjeljka Žagar

• Bachelor of Science, Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (2009 – 2013)
  Third academic year abroad at Technical University of Berlin, Germany (2011 – 2012)

Skills & Tools

• Numerical modeling including model development and validation:
  • Library for radiative transfer – libRadtran for cloud-radiation interaction studies; coding of two newly-implemented radiation solvers: the classic “δ-Eddington two-stream method with maximum-random overlap assumption for partial cloudiness” and its upgrade – the “Tripleclouds radiation scheme based on the core-shell model for convective clouds” for use in global weather and climate models
  • National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Cloud Model (CM1) for tropical cyclone intensification experiments; implementation of a balanced tropical cyclone vortex as a new initialization option
  • Validation of the atmospheric component of global climate models using NASA A-train satellite observations
  • Regional numerical weather prediction model ALADIN – optimization and validation of a new model configuration at ECMWF High Performance Computing (HPC) facility
• Linux OS (Ubuntu, openSUSE), remote connect and file transfer utilities (ssh tunneling, sftp) and HPC cluster utilization / job scheduling (using SLURM, PBS)
• Data analysis and visualization (NetCDF, GRIB formats) utilizing various programming languages and tools (Fortran, Python, C, Unix shell, gnuplot, R, NCL, ncview)
• Scientific writing (with LaTeX) and presentation skills in English (fluent), German (fluent), Slovene (native)

Publications

See Publications tab

Teaching, Mentoring & Leadership

See Teaching tab

Conferences, Seminars & Workshops

See Events tab

Awards, Funding & Scholarships

• Columbia Climate School Enrichment Funding for professional development and research visits to Princeton University and NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, as well as Climate and Radiation Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland (2023)
• Postdoctoral research scientist position at Columbia University and NASA GISS to work on the project funded by Modeling, Analysis, Predictions and Projections (MAPP) program, NOAA Climate Program Office (2021 – 2023)
• European Meteorological Society Media Award: Outreach and Communication Award (together with Dr. Žiga Zaplotnik, Dr. Lina Boljka and Dr. Aljoša Slameršak) for the project “RESCCCUE – REminding Slovenian authorities Climate Change Crisis requires Urgent Effort” (2020)
  Award Certificate
• Ph.D. position to work on the project “B4 – Radiative heating and cooling at cloud scale and its impact on dynamics” within Transregional Collaborative Research Center SFB/TRR 165 Waves To Weather (W2W) funded by German Research Foundation (2016 – 2019)
• Travel Grant for one-month scientific stay at Naval Postgraduate School, California (2015)
• National Excellence Scholarship Ad Futura for studying abroad at LMU Munich, Germany, awarded by the Slovene Human Resources Development and Scholarship Fund (2013 – 2015)
• ERASMUS Grant for studying abroad at Technical University of Berlin, Germany (2011 – 2012)
• Zois Scholarship for distinctly talented students, awarded by the Slovene Human Resources Development and Scholarship Fund (entire secondary school and university studying period in Slovenia: 2005 – 2013)
• Dean’s Award for outstanding academic achievement, University of Ljubljana (2009 – 2014)
• Golden Matura Award for outstanding achievements at secondary school final examination and Special Award for top final grades in all subjects in the last study year (2009)
• Gold Award at 51th National Mathematics Competition of Slovenia (2007)
• Silver Awards at 50th and 51th National Mathematics Competitions of Slovenia (2006, 2007)

Other Professional Activities

• Co-lead of the WCRP’s Fresh Eyes on CMIP Data Analysis Work Group (2023 – present)
• Topic Editor for European Geosciences Union’s journal Geoscientific Model Development (2023 – present)
• Reviewer for journal Geoscientific Model Development (2021 – present)
• Member of NASA / international Intercomparison of 3D Radiation Codes (I3RC) community (2021 – present)
• Member of Slovenian Meteorological Society (2019 – present)
• Member of Association of Slovenes Educated Abroad (“Društvo VTIS”) (2018 – present)
• Member of American Geophysical Union (2021 – 2023)
• Member of Slovenian female experts network She Knows (“Ona Ve”) striving to increase the presence of women in media and general decision making process (2022 – present)