Tom DiLiberto, 2009

Tom DiLiberto, 2012

Tom received his Master of Science degree from SoMAS in 2009. Coming from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science degree, Tom joined the Institute for Terrestrial and Planetary Atmospheres (ITPA) family in 2006. While at SoMAS, Tom worked with Dr. Brian Colle on storm surge modeling as a part of the Stony Brook Storm Surge Research Group. He also found time to be an intramural softball star on the championship SoMAS teams, as well as winning the SoMAS fantasy baseball league.

Currently, Tom is in Washington, DC, as a federal contractor with Wyle Information Systems. He works at the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service, NOAA. Tom is a meteorologist in the Famine Early Warning System Network group where he helps forecast weather and climate that could affect food security in Africa, Central America, Hispaniola and Afghanistan. He also maintains operational meteorological products such as a rainfall estimator for regions in Africa and South Asia which uses satellites to estimate rainfall since radar does not exist in many of these areas.

According to Tom: “By attending SoMAS, I was able to interact with professors and students and take classes in a wide diversity of topics from climate science to atmospheric/marine chemistry to biology to meteorology to oceanography. Due to this diversity, I learned how to better explain my area of expertise to others as well as how to approach discussions with people from a variety of fields. My current job requires me to interact with agriculturalists, discussing meteorological and climate impacts on crops. My experience at SoMAS in interdisciplinary studies has helped me in explaining these topics in a scientific yet understandable way to experts in differing fields of study.”