Ed Gerber

Ed Gerber

Professor at the Courant Institute

Group

Atmospheric Variability and Change

The AVC Group at the NYU investigates the role of atmospheric circulation and dynamics in a changing climate. We focus on a range of scales (from km sized gravity waves to global storm tracks) and methods. The unifying theme is a desire to understand the natural variability of our atmosphere and how it responds to external forcing. Understanding the atmospheric circulation is essential for narrowing uncertainty in regional climate change. When it comes to precipitation change over land, and hence water security, the answer my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

Current Members

Postdoctoral Scientists

  • Adam Burnett joined us at NYU as a Simons Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow after completing his PhD with Aditi Sheshadri at Stanford. We are exploring the role of convection on tropical cyclone frequency and intensity.

  • David Vishy came to NYU after completing his PhD with Nick Lutsko at UCSD. We’re exploring the development of a data-driven parameterization of state-dependent gravity wave sources.

Graduate Students

  • Tyler Greiner, co-advised with Yi Zhang, is exploring convective contraints on extreme heat.

  • Jonathan Lee is interested in using AI-boosted Rare Event Sampling to probe the dynamics of extreme atmospheric blocks.

  • Nolan Reilly is exploring an inverse problem approach to the parameterization of un- and under-resolved gravity wave momentum fluxes in atmospheric models.

Former Members

Postdoctoral Research Scientists

  • Aaron Match (2021-2024), came to NYU as a NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow. He focussed on the role of atmospheric circulation, transport, and photochemistry on stratospheric ozone, exploring both fundemental questions (why does the ozone layer reach a maximum at 26 km?) and practical concerns (how will the ozone layer respond to global warming?). He’s now at Cornell University.

  • Ofer Shamir (2021-2024) explored different data-driven strategies to represent gravity wave momentum transport. He also explored statistical models to explain and understand the variability of outgoing long wave radiation, work that we have continued together since his time at NYU.

  • Minah Yang (2021-2024) focused on the use of machine learning to improve our ability to represent un- and under-resolved gravity wave momentum transport in atmospheric models. She’s now in industry!

  • Madeleine Youngs (2020-2022) was a NOAA Global and Climate Change fellow in my group. Her tenure was admittedly not the easiest time to be in New York, as we weathered the pandemic and recovery. Her research focused on the baroclinic annular modes and Dynamical Mode Decomposition. She’s now an assistant professor at the University of Maryland.

  • Martin Jucker (2014-2016) developed a Model of an idealized Moist Atmosphere (MiMA) while at NYU. He’s now a Lecturer in Climate Dynamics and the University of New South Wales.

  • Changhyun Yoo (2011-2014) investigated teleconnections between the tropical oceans and Antarctica. He’s now a professor at Ewha Womans University, Korea.

Doctoral Students

  • Dave Connelly (PhD 2025) used physics and machine learning to improve our representation of un(der)resolved gravity waves in atmospheric models. In particular he showed how to make parameterizations that capture the impact of transient dynamics on gravity wave momentum transport computationally feasible. After a brief stint at his alma mater, Cornell University, he’s off to a postdoc with Bill Boos at UC Berkeley!

  • Claire Valva (PhD 2025) completed her thesis with Dimitris Giannakis and I. We used Koopman methods to probe the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation and Madden-Julian Oscillation. She’s now at Caltech with Andrew Stuart (who ironically just decided to come to NYU).

  • Huan Zhang (PhD 2025) was a student in Mathematics working with Jonathon Weare and I. We collaborated together on a project to use data driven methods to predict and understanding atmospheric blocking. She’s now a postdoc at ENS with Freddy Bouchet!

  • Marguerite Brown (PhD 2024) worked with me and her principle advisor, Olivier Pauluis on the dynamics of moist quasi-geostrophic turbulence. She is now at the University of Quebec at Montreal.

  • Justin Finkel (PhD, 2022 at the University of Chicago) wasn’t an official member of my group, or even NYU, but spent much of his PhD in New York after his principle advisor, Jonathon Weare, moved to the Courant. His thesis explored extreme events in the stratosphere, namely Sudden Stratospheric Warmings, applying novel methods from applied mathematics to a hierarchy of models, from a toy 3 equation model to ECMWF’s Integrated Forecasting System.

  • Aman Gupta (PhD, 2020) explored the impact of model numerics on the transport in atmospheric models. His thesis showed that there remain significant differences in stratosphere-troposphere coupling and tracer transport between the behavior of state-of-the-art dynamical cores. Aman traveled a bit farther afield for his postdoc, joining Thomas Birner’s group at LMU Munich!

  • Kevin DallaSanta (PhD, 2019) investigated the large scale circulation of the atmosphere. First, he investigated the tropospheric circulation response to volcanic eruptions, using a hierarchy of models to probe the mechanism. Second, he explored zonally coherent variability in the tropical atmosphere, discovering downward propagating anomalies on subseasonal time scales. He’s now a Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA GISS, just a few miles uptown!

  • Naftali Cohen (PhD, 2014) investigated the overturning circulation of the stratosphere and interactions between the resolved circulation and parameterized gravity waves in atmospheric models. He’s since shifted in data science and is working in industry (JP Morgan Chase, last time I checked!)

  • Xichen Li (PhD, 2014) focused on teleconnections between the the tropical oceans and the circulation around Antarctica, with a particular focus on links between the tropical Atlantic and Admunsen Sea. He’s now at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing.

Masters Students

  • Megan Lytle (MS, 2016)

  • Ho Yeung Hung (MS, 2014)

Undergraduates

  • Leonard Gu (2027)

  • Zichu Wang (2026) is now a PhD student at MIT

  • Robin Wang (2025) is now a masters student at NYU

  • Bobby Bao (2025) is now a PhD student at Stanford

  • Xingjian Yan (2024) is now a PhD Student at MIT

  • Janya Mirpuri (2024)

  • Zihan Shao (2023), is now a PhD Student at UCSD

  • Emma Knobloch (2023)

  • Dan Cao (2020) recently completed her law degree

  • Mihir Punji (2019)

  • Po Sheun (Portia) Chan (‘14)

  • Clement Chan (‘11)

  • Michael Hirsch (‘11)

  • Kelly Sielert (‘10)