This document provides a set of Shared Expectations to facilitate discussion and establish good working relationships in the Hill Group. It is a living, breathing document that will evolve with time, particularly with your feedback. I am hoping this provides clear and documented expectations for you as a student and me as an advisor so you can be successful in this research group. Welcome, and I look forward to working with you and helping you achieve your career goals!
In short, the Hill group focuses on the prediction and predictability of weather hazards, extending the applications of physics-based numerical weather prediction models and AI-based systems to improve our understanding and prediction of hazards that impact society. Often, we will use statistical methods and modeling tools for analysis of high-impact weather events and work to improve the methods themselves as well as the prediction of weather phenomena. Much of our work will have an operational weather forecasting slant, with direct application of tools or knowledge to aid operational forecasting. It is my goal that students in my group will gain broad experience with modeling tools, analysis techniques, and at time Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms.
Most of the time your work will be in the form of data analysis or reading papers. Generally, I do not expect you to have a PPT/document/pdf-style/Jupyter notebook to show me what you have done. However, those mediums would be welcomed if you want to discuss a code bug, research plots, etc. I don’t need these items to be well-put together as long as there are clear questions or concerns that you want to discuss.
If you have done data analysis, be prepared to discuss or ask questions about: • what is the purpose of this analysis • how did you do the analysis – the data, the methods, if you used code from someone else, do you understand it and how it works? • the results you got – by showing me and explaining the graphs/figures • what your results mean • questions or problems you have encountered – you should clearly explain the problem (with pictures is best), then explain what you have tried so far to solve the problem.
If you have reviewed papers, be prepared to discuss or ask questions about: • Why did you decide to read these (e.g. you want to understand this topic, it uses a method you want to understand, etc.)? • What is the main scientific question this paper addresses? • How did the authors answer the question? (model experiments, observational data, statistical analysis?) • What are the key results of this paper? • What did you learn and how does it relate to your own work or other papers you have read? • How does it add to your overall knowledge about your research topic relative to other papers you have read and/or your general knowledge?
If you are working on writing a manuscript, conference abstract, or your thesis, be prepared to respond to: • What is your thesis statement? • How does the paper/thesis topic advance our collective knowledge? What is new? • Who is the audience of this work? • Where would you like to see improvement in the document? • If you are struggling getting started, what are your writing habits like?
I will also aim to have less-formal group outings to do “fun” (TBD) things once or twice a year, depending on the group member’s interests. On top of these events, I will undoubtedly have at least one group BBQ/potluck at my home every year. Who doesn’t love food!?!
Many of these skills are learned during graduate school, and I do not expect you to have experience with many of these items prior to joining the group. However, I do expect to see you make progress learning these things as you progress in your degree program. It is one of the ways that I self-evaluate my effectiveness as a mentor and your overall preparation for a scientific career once you leave OU.
I expect you to make steady progress towards your research goals at all times. Part of that process includes being active in setting short- and medium-term goals. A good approach may include setting milestone dates and deliverables. During the academic semester, performing well in your courses is certainly important, but should not cause a complete lack of productivity. As a reminder, you are salaried half time as a graduate research assistant, so you have a responsibility to conduct research and the following guidelines are intended to support this responsibility.
An important part of conducting scientific research is keeping pace with the work of other scientists. As mentioned earlier, this is a learned skill. Learning to use literature review tools to locate relevant articles and then reading those articles will not only provide you with valuable research skills but it will also guide your research to ensure it can be an original contribution. Finally, reading other peoples published work will lead to improved writing skills – I can attest to this! A goal of reading one publication per month is a good minimum standard, and I would hope that as you become accustomed to reading literature it would become a weekly occurrence. We will periodically run journal clubs as a group (hopefully regularly!) to help achieve this goal, but journal club should not be a substitute for reading on your own within your specific area of research. My goal is to discuss 6-12 papers as a group each semester on topics that span our group research areas. You might be surprised to hear that 6-12 papers a semester probably won’t be sufficient to keep up with the literature in some areas of meteorology!
Conferences are another important venue for sharing your findings with others, not to mention the networking opportunities afforded. Although the availability of travel funding varies over time, I encourage you to submit your work for presentation to at least one conference per year. I will periodically provide notice to the group about conference/workshop opportunities, and we will make a plan together about different opportunities to pursue. Travel fellowships are available through the College (https://www.ou.edu/content/dam/ags/documents/docs/ags-faculty-travel-assistance-program_2024.pdf) , School of Meteorology, and the University if grant money is not available. I will help you identify and apply for these opportunities but please keep your eyes and ears open for notices as well. Some of the more common meteorological conferences include: AMS Annual Meeting (January/February), AGU Fall Meeting (December), and AMS speciality meetings (e.g., Severe Local Storms, Mesoscale, Numerical Weather Prediction/Weather Analysis and Forecasting). Due to travel costs, international conferences in other countries will likely be unavailable for students other than rare occasions.
Some of you may come into the group working on a specific project that is collaborative in nature, either with other faculty/students in the School of Meteorology or other institutions/laboratories. You can expect me to facilitate discussion between you and collaborators, keeping them informed of your research progress (e.g., inviting you to regular project-wide meetings). I additionally expect you to take advantage of those opportunities to network with a wider pool of scientists; you never know how your network will aid you down the line!
Relatedly, I expect you to take time and NOT WORK. Take care of yourself and your mental health. Burn out is real, and you will likely experience some version of burn out in graduate school. I will not expect you to work on weekends – you very well may need that time for course work – and hope that you can find community and a sense of belonging at OU and in the SOM that can support you and your health.
You should expect me to be available during normal work hours (8a-5p). This includes in-person discussion as well as electronic communication (e.g., email, teams/slack chat). You are more than welcome to try and communicate with me outside of normal hours (e.g., the weekend) but more than likely I will not respond immediately, and may not be available until the next work day.
You should expect me to help you learn to present your work. I will ask you to prepare a poster or a presentation for at least one scientific meeting while you are in my research group (in reality, this sometimes ends up being one per year). I will help you put one together initially, and practice presenting it. Often you will gain practice by presenting to your group peers, and I will make every attempt to schedule group meetings prior to conferences to give you opportunities to present in less-stressful, low-pressure environments. Over time, you will become more comfortable (hopefully!) sharing your scientific results in front of your peers – I say that from experience! Similarly, I will help you learn to write about your research, mainly by providing feedback on drafts of your thesis and papers. As part of the SoM curriculum, you will also gain experience presenting your research in front of your peers through the various seminar series in the school – you are required to present once per year through the seminar credit hours.
You should expect me to be your advocate. If you have a problem, come and see me. I will do the best I can to help you solve it.
My primary role in the School is to write grants and bring in money so that you can do your research with as much freedom and flexibility as possible. I serve as an advisor in your research, offering guidance and advice. Together we will design a research project tailored to your interests and the objectives tied to the funding that is supporting your work (if applicable). I will also support you in your professional development activities.
Similarly, we should discuss any concerns that you have with respect to my role as your advisor. If you feel that you need more guidance, tell me. If you feel that I am interfering too much with your work, tell me. If you would like to meet with me more often, tell me. At the same time, I will tell you if I am satisfied with your progress, and if I think you are on track to graduate by your target date. It will be my responsibility to explain to you any deficiencies, so that you can take steps to fix them. This will be a good time for us to take care of any issues before they become major problems.
I look forward to working with you!