Summary

Professional broadcast meteorologist seeking impactful opportunities to connect passions for weather and communication. Goal oriented self-starter with exemplary interpersonal and critical thinking skills. Strong work ethic and commitment to success.

Creator of compelling, data-driven weather graphics that stands alone from the competition. Has an eye for design and a stickler for detail.

Familiar with several computer languages, the Unix environment, and running/parsing data from the Weather Research & Forecasting Model.  Self-taught graphic designer, with 9 years of experience in Adobe Photoshop & Premiere Pro, and exceptional skills using the Microsoft Office suite.

Ben is a flexible, eager learner and flourishes in both independent and team-oriented environments.

Education & Academic Honors

Bachelor’s of Science, Atmospheric Sciences
Lyndon State College | May 2018
Concentrations:  Broadcasting, Private Industry, NWS/Military
GPA:  3.93 (Summa Cum Laude)

• President’s List (2 semesters), presented by Office of the Academic Dean of Lyndon State College
• Dean’s List (6 semesters), presented by Office of the Academic Dean of Lyndon State College
• Outstanding Graduating Senior Award, presented by the Lyndon State College Alumni Association
• Dr. Yoram Kaufman Scholarship, presented by the American Meteorological Society
• LSC Promise Award, presented by Lyndon State College Student Life

• Member, Arthur B. Elliott Honor Society
• Member, American Meteorological Society

Contact Ben for an official transcript.

Skills

Broadcasting Experience

Meteorologist, WPTZ-TV (NBC5) | Nov. 2019 – present

Ben is currently a full-time meteorologist for WPTZ-TV (NBC5) in the Burlington-Plattsburgh market. He can be seen on weekend mornings and noon shows during the workweek, on televisions across three states.

Ben has provided live field coverage of winter storms and wall-to-wall coverage of three separate tornado warnings in his first year at WTPZ-TV. He maintains an active social media feed on his official Facebook and Twitter accounts, often jumping at the opportunity to interact with his audience.

Ben brings a unique blend of data-driven visualization and eye-catching design to his weather graphics, built in The Weather Company’s Max 7.0 with strict adherence to the Hearst style guide. View some examples in the Graphics Portfolio.

Meteorologist, News 7 | Nov. 2016 – May 2018

Ben provided nightly weather forecasts on Lyndon State College’s Emmy award-winning newscast, News 7. He also co-lead a complete overhaul of the station graphics, designing them from the ground-up in Photoshop and implementing them on The Weather Company’s graphics system (MAX).

Weather Intern, WPRI-TV | May 2016 – Aug. 2016

Ben spent his summer as an intern at his home station WPRI-TV, located in East Providence, RI.  He worked with meteorologists Pete Mangione and Lyndon alumnus T.J. Del Santo.  He assisted in the creation of weather graphics and wrote blog posts for the website.

Forecasting Experience

Operational Meteorologist, MAXAR Technologies | Oct. 2018 – Nov. 2019

Ben supported meteorological operations at MAXAR Technologies (formerly Radiant Solutions / MDA Information Systems). He provided short, medium, and long-range weather forecasts to clients with vested interests in energy and agriculture all over the world, delivered via the company’s Weather Desk platform. Daily responsibilities included:

• Temperature forecasting for several major East Coast cities at an hourly timestep up to 5 days out
• Temperature forecasting for the ERCOT domain (Texas) in the 6-10 Day period
• Delivering forecasts via text dissemination and phone consultations
• Producing client-tailored PDF reports
• Drawing forecast maps
• Tweeting on the @Maxar_Weather account
• Providing technical support for the Weather Desk platform
• Writing Visual Basic code to streamline operations

Lead Forecaster & Shift Supervisor, Vermont Agency of Transportation | Nov. 2016 – Apr. 2018

Forecaster

Ben worked with two other forecasters to produce road forecasts for the Vermont Agency of Transportation’s nine maintenance districts.  Each forecast was tailored to the variable elevation found in each district, and were distributed daily to the entire VTrans team.  As a lead forecaster, Ben led this team of forecasters by writing a state-wide forecast discussion and suggesting changes to the team’s forecasts.  Ben helped ensure the forecasts were consistent and accurate each time they were sent out.

Shift Supervisor

Ben was promoted to Shift Supervisor during the 2017-18 season.  He oversaw the entire VTrans forecasting team and monitored all forecasts that were disseminated.  He provided mentorship to newer forecasters and smoothed over disagreements between feuding forecasters.  In addition, Ben developed and distributed the monthly shift schedules and reported significant personnel issues to the project manager.

Research Experience

BREE (Basin Resilience to Extreme Events) Intern, Vermont EPSCoR | May 2017 – Aug. 2017

Summer Research

BREE (Basin Resilience to Extreme Events) is a NSF-funded grant awarded to Vermont EPSCoR in 2016.  Its broad purpose is to foster resilience within the Lake Champlain Basin.  Click here for more information about the BREE project.

Ben worked on the climate modeling team under the supervision of Dr. Janel Hanrahan at Lyndon State College.  This aspect of the project sought to run the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to simulate the evolution of extreme precipitation events through the rest of the 21st century. Ben’s primary task was to provide the team with analyses that would help them optimize the model.  He parsed and visualized WRF output files using MATLAB, and created engaging and meaningful figures for the team.

Research for this project was presented at Dartmouth College, Johnson State College, Plymouth State University, the 2018 AMS Annual Meeting, and the 43rd Annual Northeastern Storm Conference.

Undergraduate Senior Thesis

Ben extended the work he did over the summer to his undergraduate thesis work, which compared the precipitation output produced by two different microphysics schemes (WSM-3 and New Thompson).  He verified his findings with station observations and the Daymet gridded precipitation dataset.  He continued to provide valuable information and recommendations to the climate modeling team throughout his senior year at Lyndon.

Volunteerism / Extracurriculars

President, Lyndon State College Student Chapter of the AMS & NWA | May 2016 – Apr. 2018

Chapter President

As the chapter President, Ben was responsible for leading a team of 8 dedicated students on the club’s executive board.  Together, his team orchestrated many community service and member-focused events throughout his two terms.  Some of these events include:

• Organizing trips to local weather conferences and coordinating tours of relevant organizations (NWS Burlington, TV stations, graduate schools, private companies, etc.)
• School visits to local elementary and middle schools to discuss weather preparedness and climate change communication
• Car washes & talent shows to raise money for the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund and other deserving causes
• Creation of a WordPress website for the club (lyndonams.org), designed from the ground up
• And many more – visit lyndonams.org/events for a full list of events the club puts on.

In recognition of their hard work, the Lyndon State AMS & NWA chapter earned a place on the National AMS’s Local Chapter Honor Roll for the 2016-17 year.

Chair of the Northeastern Storm Conference

In addition to his duties as President, Ben organized and acted as the Chairperson for the Northeastern Storm Conference (put on annually by the Lyndon State AMS & NWA chapter). Boasting over 300 annual attendees and over 70 abstracts from students and professionals in the field, this conference is the largest and longest-running student run conference in the nation.

Ben contacted high-profile keynote speakers and coordinated their travel, lodging expenses, and conference registrations.  He also maintained constant communication with the venue, ensuring all the pieces were in place for a smooth weekend. Under Ben’s leadership and budgeting strategies, the conference netted the highest profit for the club in over 5 years.

Read about the conference on the lyndonams.org website!

Supplemental Instructor, Lyndon State College Academic Support | Aug. 2017 – May 2018

Ben acted as a Supplemental Instructor for challenging atmospheric sciences courses, namely Atmospheric Thermodynamics and Atmospheric Dynamics I.  He attended each class session, taking notes and modelling good classroom behavior for the students.  He was also responsible for planning and delivering an hour-long weekly session for the students, which acts as a review of classroom material in a more engaging and meaningful way (i.e. preparing games, practice tests and problems, etc).

Math & Writing Center Tutor, Lyndon State College Academic Support | Aug. 2016 – May 2018

Ben served as a drop-in and one-on-one tutor in the Academic Support center at Lyndon State College.  He tutored students in various levels of mathematics, up to Calculus III.  He also provided consultations to students who struggled with English and writing courses, proofreading papers and providing suggestions for improvement.

Student Ambassador, Lyndon State College Admissions Office | Aug. 2015 – May 2016

In his free time, Ben worked with the admissions office and provided campus tours to prospective students touring the college.  He also helped the office facilitate their larger events, such as open houses and accepted-student days.  He took a lot of pride in his role of being a friendly face to associate with the college, and always represented the larger college community in a positive light.