Meet our Alumni

What attracted you to do your degree at George Mason? I could get the degree in two years while commuting from home. The program being crossed with the Geography and Geoinformation Sciences department was also a plus.

What have you been doing since you graduated from George Mason? Environmental Consultant - Ramboll Americas Engineering Solutions, Inc.

What were your favorite experiences while studying at George Mason? Some of my favorite experiences include being a TA, helping set up and establish Dr. Geoff Gilleaudeau's lab, and my course work. I enjoyed teaching undergraduate labs to both major and non-major students. I enjoyed teaching the intro labs the most because for many students that class was the only science lab they would take in college, so I tried to make it fun. My research was a great experience, getting to be part of the development of Dr. Gilleaudeau's wet chemistry lab at Mason and working collaboratively with the lab at UMD taught me a lot. By far my favorite experience was getting to work with Geoff for two years.

What attracted you to do your degree at George Mason?A multidisciplinary approach to Earth Science and close ties to industry and governmental opportunities.

What have you been doing since you graduated from George Mason? I am currently working at the USGS as a geologist on the Appalachian Basin Mapping Project

What were your favorite experiences while studying at George Mason? International travel and fieldwork while completing my research and having the opportunities to intern with the USGS during my studies.

What attracted you to do your degree at George Mason? I really liked the research that my advisor, Dr. Gilleaudeau, was working on. I wanted to study geochemistry and Dr. Gilleaudeau had a very interesting project idea that we came up with at my undergraduate Field Camp in Italy.

What have you been doing since you graduated from George Mason? I worked as an instructor for a year post MS degree and then moved to Phoenix, AZ where I am now working on a PhD in Geological Sciences.

What were your favorite experiences while studying at George Mason? I loved my research. I got to work in Dr. Gilleaudeau's wet-lab where we prepared samples for analysis in various instruments. I prepared my samples, sedimentary marine limestones, for analysis in a mass spectrometer to examine their elemental concentrations and isotopic compositions to constrain their history.

What have you been doing since you graduated from George Mason? I am a Meteorologist at NOAA/NWS/WPC (Weather Prediction Center) at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Maryland.

What attracted you to do your degree at George Mason? I was drawn to George Mason because of its strong emphasis on applied science and its proximity to federal agencies and research institutions. Mason provided opportunities to explore a variety of fields and apply what I was learning in real-world settings. That exposure ultimately led to an internship with the National Weather Service, where I eventually began working after graduating.

What were your favorite experiences while studying at George Mason? One of my favorite aspects of studying at Mason was the opportunity to engage with professionals and students from a wide range of disciplines. Climate science, and science in general, requires collaboration, and I valued working alongside climate scientists, meteorologists, oceanographers, specialists, physical scientists, and others who approached problems from different perspectives.

What attracted you to do your degree at George Mason? Proximity was a big part of what attracted me to Mason as I was living in Arlington, VA at the time. It allowed me to keep my job for almost a year after starting the program which was a huge plus. I also knew two students that went through the Climate Dynamics PHD program and had great things to say about it!

What have you been doing since you graduated from George Mason? I got lucky getting a job with SAIC, contracting for NASA, just a few days after presenting my thesis research. I am an Atmospheric Modeling Programmer and I work on NASA's GEOS Global Climate Model - testing/validation/documentation/etc.

What were your favorite experiences while studying at George Mason? I attended from 2020-2022 so the Covid-19 pandemic really put a damper on a lot of activities, but I really enjoyed the opportunities to go to class, when safe, and see live experiments when things opened back up. I also worked as a TA teaching a climate change course to undergrads. Even though I had a lot of education in this subject, teaching it to others really solidified my grasp on anything that I was not clear on.  

I was a part of George Mason's Climate Consensus chapter, and I really enjoyed one event that was held in Arlington - we developed simple experiments to illustrate the ways climate change is occurring in addition to a fun jeopardy style game for the public to learn about the facts surrounding climate change. Finally, I was able to work for NOAA in the William Lapenta internship program in 2021. I worked on the Wave Watch III model, converting scripts from MATLAB to Python and seeing the inner workings of the model was fascinating. I would not have had this opportunity without my connections and knowledge gained at George Mason. 

Growing up just north of Richmond, Virginia, Reilly chose to attend George Mason University to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Atmospheric Sciences. After spending a year working in local government, he returned to George Mason University to continue his studies in the Climate Science Master’s Program.

During his time in the Climate Science Master’s Program, he initially participated in the Climate Science Master’s Fellowship before joining the Virginia Climate Center as a Graduate Research Assistant. In that role, he contributed to projects focused on renewable energy solutions and floodplain management. He also conducted independent research examining recent precipitation and flooding trends in the James River Watershed.

What attracted you to do your degree at George Mason? The renowned Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences as well as the newly formed MS Climate Science program is what attracted me to complete my degree at Mason.

What have you been doing since you graduated from George Mason? Since 2022 I have been working as the Communications Manager for the Virginia Climate Center at George Mason University

What were your favorite experiences while studying at George Mason? My favorite experience while studying at Mason was organizing a chapter of a multi-institutional group known as “The Climate Consensus”. It brought our climate students and faculty together under the shared desire to improve our communication about climate change with the public.

What attracted you to do your degree at George Mason? The comprehensive scope of the climate system with a forward focus on the use/development of models.

What have you been doing since you graduated from George Mason? Since graduating I have worked at IRES/University of Colorado (2015-2019), NASA GSFC Hydrologic Science Laboratory/GESTAR (2019-2022), NOAA CPC/ESSIC, and am now at the University of Maryland (2022-present).

What were your favorite experiences while studying at George Mason? Two items: 1) The opportunity to take classes across a wide spectrum of focus areas in and outside the AOES Department, and 2) the ability to develop my own ideas for my research and see where they led without having a predetermined target in mind.

What attracted you to do your degree at George Mason? The ability to pursue land-atmosphere interactions climate research.

What have you been doing since you graduated from George Mason?  I was a support scientist at NOAA/NCEP/EMC (IMSG) working in the Ensembles Team from 2018-2019, a postdoc at NASA GSFC (ESSIC) from 2019-2020, a Space Technology Support Scientist/Senior Data Scientist at NASA Research and Education Support Services (NRESS/SAIC) from 2020-2023, and now an Open Science Support Scientist at NASA HQ/SMD (Booz Allen Hamilton)

What were your favorite experiences while studying at George Mason? I appreciated the networking opportunities facilitated by my advisor, particularly with so many prospective employment opportunities in the area (NOAA, NASA). I built invaluable lifelong friendships and professional collaborations with colleagues during my time at George Mason. I loved my land-atmosphere interactions class and appreciated the experience provided, especially noting that our work led to a publication.