Nothing Cloudy About Fugal's Goals

faculty and grad student in lab

He's heard all of the jokes, including having his head in the clouds. He admits that's right where he wants to be.

Jacob Fugal is a PhD candidate specializing in atmospheric physics. With the help of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, he has turned a childhood interest in clouds into a career.

"I am interested in basic research of clouds," he says, "specifically, how precipitation forms in clouds."

Fugal helped build a probe that takes holograms of cloud droplets. His advisor, physics faculty member Raymond Shaw, led the project. "We call in HOLODEC I," Fugal said. "From these holograms, we can find out how cloud droplets are spaced in three dimensions."

The team built the probe in three months, took it to the national Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and flew it on a dozen flights.

"Now we are busy figuring out how to analyze the holograms to get the information we need—droplet spacial coordinates," he said. "We're also preparing to build HOLODEC II."

Future forecasters may thank Fugal for his holograms. No matter what your scientific interest, you, too, can create your future at Michigan Tech.