My name is Victoria Lang, and I am currently a graduate student in the Earth and Planetary Sciences department at Northwestern University. I graduated with a BS in Business Administration from Illinois State University a *few* years ago but, after gaining some life experience, I found I wanted more purpose from a career and returned to school. Since this life pivot, I have completed a BS in Meteorology from Northern Illinois University and MS in Atmospheric Science from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Outside of the world of academia, I enjoy hiking, kayaking, reading, and spending time with my husband and daughter.
My undergraduate research focused on trends of North American extratropical cyclones (weather systems that are responsible for everyday weather variability in the mid-latitudes) over the last 40 years. As climate changes, it is important to understand how warming of the atmosphere may influence these important weather drivers. During undergrad, I received my first poor air quality warning in the Chicago suburbs and decided I wanted to learn more about meteorology’s role on air quality. My master’s thesis investigated the potential impacts of large, reoccurring firework displays from state fairs on local air quality. While inconclusive, this study highlights the challenge of quantifying source-receptor relationships of air pollution in urban environments and the need for a higher spatial resolution of air quality sampling. Over the last several years I’ve also had the opportunity to intern with Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium creating conceptual ozone models for regions in non-attainment of EPA standards, as well as the Naval Research Laboratory, where I analyzed error propagation in the US Navy’s aerosol analysis prediction system.
My current research interests encircle issues of air pollution prediction, including aspects of data assimilation, modeling, and decision support. It is these interests that have brought me to join the Climate Change Research Group (CCRG). My research goals are to contribute to improving numerical model representation of air pollution and to utilize model output to investigate issues surrounding urban air quality.
Check out my Google Scholar page to view my published work.
