Elizabeth N. Smith

Dr. Elizabeth Smith has been a research meteorologist at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory since January 2020. Her scientific work at NSSL focuses broadly on boundary layer processes relevant to near- and pre-storm environments and convection initiation an how to observe them. She specializes in boundary-layer observations, including remote profiling and uncrewed aircraft. She earned a Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma in December of 2018 and spent a postdoctoral year at OU’s NOAA Cooperative Institute. Before graduate study at OU, she earned a B.S. in Meteorology at the California University of Pennsylvania—now called PennWest California—in 2014. Beyond her specialty-specific contributions, Dr. Smith is invested in making science tangible, applicable, and approachable for everybody.

On a more personal note, Elizabeth is a female scientist from a small town in West Virginia with a blue-collar upbringing. She is a first generation college graduate. Her significant-other, Chris is also a meteorologist, which makes for interesting debate at times. Thankfully they work on different topics. If she’s not in the office or in the field, you can sometimes find her volunteering at the National Weather Museum and Science Center, or hanging out at home in her pool in the summer or with her pets. She has a couple of cats (Margo and Arlene) and a dog (Sasha). She has been getting back to reading for leisure. You can follow her reads at The StoryGraph. Elizabeth also enjoys sewing, cooking, doing shoddy DIY projects around the house, and listening to too much news radio.