Jessica Leffel recently joined the Sustainable URban Futures (SURF) Lab as an M.S. student in Meteorology. Welcome!

Prior to coming to OU, Jessica graduated from Barrett the Honors College at Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in Meteorology-Climatology. Her previous research analyzed the relationship between tropospheric ozone pollution and synoptic conditions in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition, Jessica worked as a meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service Phoenix office.

Jessica’s research interests include applied climatology, energy, urban meteorology, climate variability, and synoptic meteorology. Advised by Dr. Chenghao Wang, her research at OU will aim to enhance urban building energy use predictions with the development of an integrated modeling framework that accounts for local and regional meteorological conditions. This will combine building stock models with urban meteorological models to create more accurate predictions of city-level building energy use.