Our Research Team

My name is Braxton Wilcken‑Pond, and I am a High School Research Assistant at Utah State University’s Uintah Basin campus. Throughout my high school career, I have earned multiple certificates in entrepreneurship, marketing, engineering, electronics, accounting, and digital design. I have consistently maintained a 4.0 GPA and am a member of the National Honor Society with three and a half consecutive years of active membership. I strive to embody hard work, leadership, resilience, integrity, authenticity, and discipline in everything I do.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, playing sports or video games, designing solutions to real‑world problems, learning new skills, and experimenting with new ideas.

I lead our team's mission to improve air-quality communication to industry workers, policy makers, and public in the Uinta Basin, with the goal of maximising both puiblic and economic health by deploying recent findings to real-world situation. My background is in meteorology, and previously worked at the National Weather Center (Norman, Oklahoma) on thunderstorm-prediction models and received my PhD in meteorology from Iowa State University.

My current research focus is improving our in-house air-quality prediction model, Clyfar,
numerical weather prediction, statistical analysis, and field observations to understand complex atmospheric phenomena in mountainous terrain.

My journey into atmospheric science began with a fascination for mountain weather during undergraduate studies in mathematics. This led to graduate work in atmospheric sciences where I specialized in boundary layer meteorology and air quality modeling. Now, I'm privileged to study these processes in one of the most meteorologically interesting regions of the western United States.

Current research projects include investigating winter temperature inversions and their impacts on air quality, developing improved forecasting techniques for complex terrain, and mentoring the next generation of atmospheric scientists. I'm particularly interested in making atmospheric science accessible to the public through plain-language communication and community engagement.

When not analyzing weather data or teaching, you'll find me hiking the Uinta Mountains, photographing cloud formations, or attempting to explain why meteorologists find temperature inversions exciting at dinner parties.

Luke is a student at Uintah High School that works part-time as a high school student researcher at Bingham Research Center. Luke has a good amount of experience working with programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. He is good at math and has taken an AP Precalculus class, scoring fairly high on the AP test. He is planning on pursuing a career in website or software development which has drawn him to join the Bingham Research Center, specifically on the programming side of the center.

Currently, Luke is developing this site, the JRL academic site. He is also contributing bits and pieces to basinwx.com, mostly focusing on the water weather page of the site.

Outside the lab, Luke also really likes music. He sings, plays the piano and percussion, and composes some songs of his own. He has really enjoyed coding on his own and has made some games on scratch.mit.edu. When he's not making music or coding, he likes making up stories, usually about dimension travelling superheroes with the strangest backstories.

Michael (background, skills before joining, what drove him to join)

Currently, I'm developing (research in plain language, one recent project adding to operations/applications, one current project (main focus), one early stage looking to future applications.)

Outside the lab, Michael (hobbies, interests, family life, etc.)

Quinten Baldwin is a student at Uintah High School who works part time as a Student Research Assistant at Bingham Research Center. Quinten works on code regarding the Basinwx website and also does some work in the lab. He does programming in languages like Python, JavaScript, and CSS/HTML, and also has some experience in other programming languages like C#, Lua, and more.

Currently, Quinten is working on the general development of the Basinwx website, but also on a new, yet to be implemented, page and feature. He also helps in the lab doing things like measuring perm tubes.

Outside of work, Quinten also works on his own personal projects involving programming and other hobbies. He works on other projects with his friends as well as simply hanging out. He enjoys spending time with his family.