ESSIC/CISESS Post-doctoral Associate Daile Zhang recently taught a virtual meteorology class as a part of a summer camp for 6th grade students from Stafford County Public Schools.
Zhang showed the students what meteorologists do, the jobs they can hold, and the projects that she has been working on. She also talked about her own experience of how she became a meteorologist and gave the students advice on how to choose a science career path. After the class, she sent the students a lightning booklet she developed in 2017, which answers many questions people often ask about lightning.
Daile Zhang received her Ph.D. degree in Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona. During her PhD, she studied lightning physics and lightning detection under Dr. Ken Cummins, a world-leading lightning scientist. Currently, she is a postdoctoral associate at ESSIC, focusing on evaluating and assessing space-based lightning sensors such as the Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLMs) on GOES-16 and 17. Daile is passionate about lightning and thunderstorms and photographing them.
Zhang has been involved in virtual outreach through the entirety of the COVID-19 crisis. Last month, she organized an International Lightning Safety & Protection Meeting. For more information on this recorded meeting, click here.
