Wenwen Kong, IoES post-doc. Now a Data Scientist at Studio X.
Sam Baugh, Statistics PhD (2022). Now an Assistant Professor of Statistics at PSU
Surabhi Agrawal, Statistics MS (2022). Now a Data Scientist at Pacific Life.
Kristen Fukunaga, Mathematics BS (2021). Now a masters student at UW Statistics.
Dhruv Chakraborty, Computational Mathematics BS (2021). Now a Product Scientist at Indeed.com.
Avery Robinson, Statistics BS (2021). Now at Silicon Valley Bank.
Stephanie Doe, Applied Mathematics BS (2021). Now a Data Scientist at MOBE.
Russell Horowitz, IoES Master's (2021). Now a PhD student at the Basque Centre for Climate Change.
Chris Reed, IoES BS (2020). Now a Data Analyst at wikiHow.
Pete Jourgensen, Computer Science Master's degree (2019). Now a Data Scientist at Deep 6 AI.
Information for all prospective group members
Research in the McKinnon group is on the physical climate system, including the development of novel statistical and machine learning methodologies to answer scientific questions about the climate system. A strong quantitative background (including in statistics, computer science, physics, and applied math) is strongly encouraged, and is more important than a background in earth or atmospheric science specifically. Research areas include weather extremes (heat, humidity, precipitation), wildfire, internal variability across timescales, land/atmosphere interactions, and the climate response to human influences. If you are interested more broadly in questions related to sustainability or the social sciences as related to the environment, please contact other relevant faculty members at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
Prospective undergraduate students
At this time, I am not able to take on undergraduate students in the group. Please check back in later!
Prospective graduate students
I can admit students through the Department of Statistics, the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Your experience doing research in my group will be the same regardless of which program you apply to; however, the course requirements and funding structures are different. Please explore the websites of the different programs to figure out what seems to meet your needs best, and get in touch with the academic administrators if you have further questions about the logistics and requirements of each program.
Note that I find it most equitable, efficient, and helpful to wait to chat by phone or zoom with prospective students until after applications have been submitted. However, you are welcome and encouraged to send me an email letting me know that you will be applying to UCLA and are interested in the group, and I can provide brief thoughts on which program may be the best fit, if helpful. If the application fee is an undue burden, please do get in touch with the relevant department about a waiver. This will not affect how your application is assessed.
If you are interested in joining the group as a post-doc, please be in touch by email to see if I have funding available. In addition, I am happy to discuss post-doctoral fellowship options. Some potential funding sources for post-docs are the NOAA Global Change post-doc, the various NSF post-docs, and the Schmidt Science Fellows.