Glenn Schwartz | Wes Junker | Joe D'Aleo | Matt Lanza | Paul Kocin | Brian Lovern | Michael Ekster | Keith Dixon

Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz was named NBC 10’s chief meteorologist on November 28, 2002, and in the same year, he co-authored The Philadelphia Area Weather Book.
           
Schwartz joined NBC 10 in October 1995.  Prior to that, he worked as the meteorologist for WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach, WINK-TV in Fort Myers, Florida, and WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina.  In Ft. Myers, he covered Hurricane Andrew on his first day on the air.
           
Schwartz got his nickname when he worked at WNYW-TV in New York City from 1986-1990.  An anchorman dubbed him “Hurricane” after watching old footage of Schwartz being blown around in one.  As a Hurricane Specialist for The Weather Channel in Atlanta from 1985 – ‘86, he produced hurricane documentaries for the network and the National Science Foundation.  He also became the network’s first “hurricane chaser.”
           
In 1979-’83, Schwartz began his TV Meteorology career with WAGA-TV in Atlanta.  Before joining WAGA, he was the Disaster Preparedness Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Atlanta.  His experience and interest with hurricanes began with the National Hurricane Center in Miami from 1974-1977.  From 1972-1974, Schwartz worked at Accu-Weather in State College, Pennsylvania, providing radio forecasts for numerous clients.
           
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Schwartz attended Central High School and went on to graduate from Penn State receiving a B.S. degree in Meteorology.
           
Being the recipient of numerous awards including an Emmy, Schwartz is most proud of being voted “one of the 30 greatest Philadelphians of the past 30 years” in 1998.  Schwartz also treasures his 2005 Louis J. Batton Author’s Award presented to him in San Diego by The American Meteorological Society.  ‘The Philadelphia Area Weather Book,’ co-authored by Schwartz, won because of its outstanding regionally –focused account of historical weather events.  In October 2005, he was named the 79th Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) in the country.  Schwartz is one of the first broadcast meteorologists in Philadelphia to earn this prestigious recognition.

Over the years, Schwartz has been very involved in his community, participating in hundreds of speaking engagements, workshops and seminars on earth sciences and the weather. In October 2005, Schwartz started H.O.P.E.S., a community project which stands for “Hurricane’s Outreach Program to Educate Students.” The goal of H.O.P.E.S. is to mentor and provide a selected group of minority students with professional guidance and exposure to the field of meteorology.
           
Schwartz resides in Lower Merion and is a lifetime Philadelphia sports fan.  His hobbies include racquetball, softball, and of course, chasing hurricanes.

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Mr. Wes Junker is an American Meterological Society (AMS) Fellow and former the president of the National Weather Association (NWA). Junker has won four NWA awards, including the T. Theodore Fujita Research Achievement Award in 2002, having been recognized for "significant and unique contributions to improved operational heavy rain and snow forecasts from NWS Offices across the Nation". He has also won two AMS awards, including the Award for Exceptional Specific Prediction for his forecast of the record midwest snowstorm of October 18 and 19, 1989.

Junker is an expert on quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) problems. He has lectured on QPF problems in Canada, Taiwan, China, and the United Kingdom, and has been a guest lecturer numerous times as part of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research's Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training. Along with this, he has frequently lectured on snow forecasting at various NWS forecast offices.

Wes has published peer-reviewed articles on synoptic meteorology in the AMS bi-monthly journal Weather and Forecasting, the AMS magazine BAMS, and the official publication of the NWS, the National Weather Digest. He has also published a number of preprint articles for AMS conference presesentations.

Joe D'Aleo received his bachelor's and master's degrees in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin and did his doctoral studies in meteorology at NYU. D"Aleo was a professor of meteorology for more than eight years, including six years at Lyndon State College.

D'Aleo was a co-founder and the first director of meteorology at the cable TV Weather Channel. Since 1989, Joe has been chief meteorologist at the private weather forecasting company WSI Corporation. He is also senior editor (aka Dr Dewpoint) for WSI's Intellicast Web site.

Joe is a Certified Consultant Meteorologist and was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). He has served as member and then chairman of the AMS's Committee on Weather Analysis and Forecasting, and has co-chaired national conferences for both the AMS and the National Weather Association. Joe has presented and published numerous papers focused on advanced applications enabled by new technologies and how research into ENSO and other atmospheric and oceanic phenomena has made skillful seasonal forecasts possible. He has also authored a book for Oryx Press/Greenwood Publishing on El Nino.

Matt Lanza  (Utica Wx) came to the Mohawk Valley in June 2005 from WIXT/WSYR in Syracuse. He graduated from Cook College at Rutgers University with his Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology.

Prior to moving to Upstate New York, he spent time interning at WMGM-TV in Atlantic City, NJ and delivering forecasts for the campus television network. He also spent quite a few months working with several fellow undergrads and graduate students to prepare forecasts and severe weather alerts for a major New Jersey utility company.

Matt is a native of the Jersey Shore. He has loved the weather since he was about 3 years old, thanks to Hurricane Gloria. He also enjoys the challenge that comes with forecasting, especially here in Central New York.

Despite being in solid SU territory, Matt will always root for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. In his free time he loves visiting friends and family in New Jersey and elsewhere in the Northeast, watching sports, and exploring Upstate New York.

Brian Lovern was born and raised in southwest Virginia, and unlike most meteorologists, had no idea that forecasting weather would become his profession of choice until a couple of years into college, despite a great interest in all things weather, which began with watching events such as Hurricane Hugo back in 1989. Upon making the decision to become a meteorologist, Brian enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, where he obtained a degree in Atmospheric Science back in May 2001.

His first job in the field was at WKAG television, a small station located in Hopkinsville, KY, where he produced and anchored weather segments for seven live shows each weekday, and occasionally appeared on weekends as well whenever severe weather threatened. After realizing the the television industry was not his calling, Brian moved on to AccuWeather, located in State College, PA in October 2003, beginning work only a week after marrying his beuatiful wife.

At AccuWeather, Brian was placed into many different roles, from forecasting weather for various locations throughout the nation, to some radio and video work, occasionally filling in for Joe Bastardi, who was one of Brian's greatest inspirations in getting involved in another area of meteorology... longer range forecasting, which would soon become the focus of his attention. After nearly three years at AccuWeather, Brian left the company to pursue other options, in hopes of landing a job in the energy arena, where he could make use of the skills he had developed in the realm of the longer range. This past November, Brian began his new job in Houston, TX, working for a group of energy traders.

In his spare time, Brian can be found spending time out with his wife and new baby boy, and of course, even off of the job, plenty of time is spent studying the weather.

Michael Ekster is a Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, MA. Mike attained a keen interest in Meteorology when he was a child while growing up on Long Island. The most impressionable weather events of his childhood include Hurricanes Gloria and Bob, as well as the severe nor’easter of December 1992.Mike graduated from Lyndon State College in 2000 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Meteorology.

His first job in weather was at a private sector company in Eastern Massachusetts. After working in New England for just over a year, Mike moved to Kansas where he accepted a position with the National Weather Service In Wichita, Kansas. It was there where he had the opportunity to work the record severe weather outbreak of May 2003. Mike joined the Upton, NY Weather Forecast Office staff in June of 2003. It was there where Mike had the opportunity to forecast several winter weather events, including the Blizzards of 2005 and 2006. In October 2006, Mike Joined the National Weather Service in Taunton Massachusetts where he is the severe weather program leader as well as the Weather Event Simulator focal point.

Mike is also an avid stormchaser and golfer.

Keith Dixon is a senior research meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) located in Princeton, New Jersey. His expertise lies in the use of state-of-the-art computer models to simulate the Earth’s global climate - past, present, and future.

During his more than twenty years at GFDL, Keith’s research has focused on using complex computer models to study climate change and variability, often with an emphasis on the ocean’s role on decadal to centennial time scales. He has participated in national and international climate change assessment projects, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC reports, assembled with input by scientists from more than forty nations, are widely considered the definitive assessment of the current state of climate change research, and as such, figure prominently in the decision-making processes of policymakers around the globe. In 2005, in recognition of his IPCC-related contributions to "establishing NOAA as a leading source of model-based scientific information about past and future climate", Keith received both an individual NOAA Research Employee of the Year Award and his second U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal as a member of GFDL’s IPCC modeling team. In 1993, Keith and two colleagues received the DOC Silver Medal for creating the GFDL Modular Ocean Model - a computer model used by researchers worldwide.

An author or co-author of over thirty articles that have appeared in scientific journals, Keith’s research at GFDL continues to focus on issues of large scale climate change and variability. He also serves as a GFDL Data Portal Development Team leader, coordinating the processing, quality control, and distribution of GFDL model output products.

Keith regularly participates in educational outreach activities, giving presentations on the science of climate change and the greenhouse effect to various groups, including school and civic organizations. His interest in communicating about climate science extends to collaborating to prepare exhibits for the National Academy of Science’s Marian Koshland Science Museum in Washington DC and the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, as well as helping develop graphics, animations and text that have appeared in the popular press, including CNN, the NY Times, Newsweek, Discover, and Time magazines.

Before joining GFDL in 1983, Keith, a life-long resident of New Jersey, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in meteorology from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey and received the American Meteorological Society's Father James B. Macelwane Award for Undergraduate Research in 1982. Early in his professional career he also worked as a part-time radio broadcast meteorologist and taught at Rutgers University.

Keith is a member of the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He resides in Middlesex County, New Jersey with his wife and son.

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