CV | Mike Hobbins

Mike Hobbins, B.Eng., M.S., Ph.D.

University of Colorado-Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, CO 80303, USA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Physical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO 80305, USA

tel. 307-228-0815 | mike.hobbins@noaa.gov

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Recent research foci

- reformulating and improving modeling and metering of drought;
- developing datastreams and operationalizing tools for drought and famine early warning and monitoring communities;
- examining the effects of climate change and variability on the hydrosphere, specifically moisture dynamics at the land surface-atmosphere interface resulting in and from drought;
- developing and operationalizing services of continental- and global-scale, real-time forecasts and reanalyses of hydrologic variables;
- partitioning dynamics of secular hydrologic trends and variability, particularly in evaporative drivers;
- overturning the temperature-proxy paradigm in evapotranspiration in science and operations;
- developing and operationalizing the Evaporative Demand Drought Index – a tool for early warning and monitoring of drought;
- quantifying and describing the spatial distribution of large-scale, natural water supply;
- developing flash drought metrics and establishing principles and definitions to guide the science of flash-drought detection and prediction;
- exploiting the relationships between evaporative fluxes, drought, and wildfire risk to develop decision-support tools for the wildfire community.

Core research skills

- spatial and time-series analyses;
- hydrologic model creation, calibration, and assessment;
- GIS and programming (UNIX/Linux scripting, FORTRAN, IDL, Python);
- management of large datasets;
- fieldwork, including flow gauging and tracing, water quality and soil sampling, surveying, and hydrometeorologic experimentation from design and field-data capture to troubleshooting;
- outreach with stakeholders and scientists from other fields;
- communicating with diverse audiences on various topics through peer-reviewed scientific literature, conference papers, and direct instruction.

graduate teaching assistant: Colorado State University-Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering Mechanics-Statics, a 200-level three-credit course in core engineering curriculum;
instructor: Evaporative Demand, in COMET MetEd Advanced Hydrologic Sciences Virtual Course.
doctoral committee member: Dr. Daniel McEvoy, University of Nevada-Reno;
graduate student committee member: Shuang Xia, University of Nevada-Reno;
graduate student committee member: Connor Seacrest, Colorado State University;
mentor for: CIRES post-doctoral fellow, Matilda Newton, University of Colorado; Summer scholar, Timen Jansma, Wageningen University and Research; SOARS scholar, Delian Colon Burgos, Penn State University; and NERTO scholar, Siena Dante, City University of New York.

Doctor of Philosophy

2004
Hydrologic Science and Engineering, Colorado State University

Dissertation: Regional evapotranspiration and pan evaporation: Complementary interactions and long-term trends across the conterminous United States.

Master of Science

2000
Hydrologic Science and Engineering, Colorado State University

Thesis: Evaluating and enhancing two implementations of the complementary relationship in regional evapotranspiration.

Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)

1989
Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, UK

Senior Research Scientist

Oct 2012 - Present
Physical Sciences Laboratory, NOAA-Earth System Research Laboratories (NOAA-ESRL)
Boulder, CO

Developing a national reference evapotranspiration service for NOAA and NIDIS stakeholders and the National Water Center and a global reference evapotranspiration service for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). Contracted to NOAA through first, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Visiting Scientist Program and, second, the University of Colorado-Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).

Visiting Scientist

Oct 2009 - Oct 2012
Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) National Weather Service (NWS)
Salt Lake City, UT

Improved the treatment of evapotranspiration in NWS operations, by (i) improving water-supply forecast skill of CBRFC’s river forecast model by incorporating a physically based, dynamic driver of evaporative demand, and (ii) instituting a forecast of reference crop evapotranspiration throughout the NWS Western Region. Contracted to NWS-CBRFC through Wyle Information Systems Group and UCAR Visiting Scientist Program.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Aug 2005 - Jan 2009
Australian National University, Research School of Biological Sciences (RSBS)
Canberra, Australia

Examined evaporative dynamics at spatial scales from point to continental, and temporal scales from instantaneous to multi-decadal. Explored evaporative demand as a driver of drought.

Water Resources Engineer and Data Analyst

Jun 2003 - Jul 2005
Riverside Technology, inc. and Paluster Environmental Services Fort Collins, CO

While a graduate student, consulted to National Weather Service (NWS) for flood-forecasting and the Rio Grande Water Conservancy District on an assessment of ET from groundwater in the San Luis Valley, CO.

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow and Graduate Research Assistant

May 1996 - May 2005
Colorado State University (CSU), Civil Engineering Department
Fort Collins, CO

Researched a new paradigm in estimating evapotranspiration while first a Graduate Research Assistant, then a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. Funded by the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station.

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Outstanding Performance Award in Science for: ”Leadership and innovation in drought research, including development and operationalization of the Evaporative Demand Drought Index, its application to famine early warning, and strides in understanding flash drought,” 2022.
American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Superior Paper Award: “The variability of ASCE Standardized Reference Evapotranspiration: a rigorous, CONUS-wide decomposition and attribution,” 2017.
National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) grant ($36K): “Development of a Nevada Drought Early Warning System and NIDIS Application Tools,” 2016-2018.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Program Office (CPO) Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP) grant ($38K): “Developing a wildfire component for the NIDIS California Drought Early Warning System,” 2016-2018.
NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) grant ($891K): “Operationalizing an Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) service for drought monitoring and early warning,” 2016-2019.
Gary Comer Abrupt Climate Change Fellowship, 2005-2008.
National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarship, 2002.
W. Shen Water Resources Graduate Award, Colorado State University, 2001.
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Hydrology Days Best M.S. Student Paper Award: “The complementary relationship in regional evapotranspiration: The CRAE Model and the Advection-aridity approach,” 1999.

Presentations

Publications