Karen Kosiba

Karen 'Kosiba' is an American atmospheric scientist and researcher at the University of Alabama in Huntsville Severe Weather Institute – Radar & Lightning Laboratories (SWIRLL) and managing director of the Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets, a research team which manages the Doppler on Wheels mobile radar fleet used to gather data on tornadoes and other severe weather.

Education

Kosiba received a bachelor's degree in the field of physics from Loyola University Chicago in 1999, and later received a Master of Science and Master of Arts in Teaching from Miami University in 2002 and 2003. She completed her Doctor of Philosophy in atmospheric science from Purdue University in 2009 under doctoral advisor Dr. Robert J. Trapp.

Career

She participated in the PERiLS Project, which aimed to study how tornadoes form within squall lines. In July 2021, Kosiba was featured on the American Meteorological Society's podcast, AMS on the Air. On May 21, 2024, she operated a Doppler on Wheels mobile radar while observing the Greenfield, Iowa EF4 tornado. In late 2024, she led the FARM project aside meteorologist Joshua Wurman.