Matthew Gropp (Ph.D., INES)
I was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. The large snowstorms, severe thunderstorms and nor’ easters that frequently hit the western suburbs of Philly were what got me interested in weather to begin with. There was never a doubt in my mind that I was going to Penn State for Meteorology. I graduated with a BS in May of 2014 and my undergraduate research was done with the exoplanet research group. I worked on several atmospheric models designed to be used for Venus’ atmosphere. For the year previous to starting graduate school, I was working the NASA Swift satellite headquartered at Penn State. My official title was a science planner/research assistant and I spent the majority of my time coding to help analyze and detect errors in the output data from the satellite. But I knew that I wanted to get back and continue my studies in Meteorology. My favorite hobby is most definitely golf. I played for my high school and Penn State and I try to play as much as I can. I worked several summers at Merion Golf Club and was able to work for the 2013 US Open.