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Brian Yanites has been an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at IU Bloomington since 2016. He is part of the Geomorphology and Landscape Evolution group, which studies how climate, tectonics and rock type influence the processes and landforms that shape the Earth’s surface. Yanites is currently part of a group of scientists developing a scientific rapid response to Hurricane Helene.

He was previously an assistant professor at the University of Idaho and post-doc at the University of Michigan. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, a master’s degree from the University of Arizona and a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Chanh Kieu is an associate professor in earth and atmospheric sciences in The College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington. His research currently focuses on the application of machine learning to understand hurricane intensity and prediction, trying to answer the question: How far in advance can you predict hurricane intensity? 

He earned his Ph.D. in 2008 and his M.S. in 2005 from the University of Maryland, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science; and his B.S. in 2003 from Vietnam National University, College of Science, Hanoi.

Travis O’Brien is a professor in the IU Bloomington Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Research in his group focuses on understanding what controls weather and climate phenomena that impact human and natural systems. He and his group specialize in using a combination of numerical models, novel data analysis techniques, and fundamental theory to form and test hypotheses about what controls the physical characteristics and occurrence of weather patterns, from fog to extremes.

This research focuses on the broad questions of: What causes characteristics of different weather types to vary from year to year? How well do different modeling approaches simulate different weather types? How will anthropogenic climate change affect specific weather types?

O’Brien received his Ph.D. in earth sciences from University of California Santa Cruz, followed by two years as a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He transitioned from his postdoctoral position into a career scientist position, where he stayed until coming to IU in 2020.