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Northland College appoints new Meteorology/Atmospheric Science faculty member

March 2, 2011

Northland College has named Luke Van Roekel to a tenure track faculty appointment as an assistant professor of Atmospheric Science beginning Fall 2011.

“I've always been drawn to small liberal arts colleges,” said Van Roekel. “Smaller schools tend to have exceptional students who are passionate about learning. The classroom environment becomes more of a conversation and a give and take, where at a large university, the flow of information is often unidirectional. The ideal classroom is not one where the teacher is a construction worker, building a house from the ground up, but is instead a home renovator, helping to build on to and reshaping what students already know.”

Van Roekel earned a bachelor’s degree from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University. He is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science. His most recent research focuses on analyses of how small scale ocean processes influence the entire ocean as well as the climate.

“Ashland is a unique location that is strongly controlled by the interaction of large bodies of water, the land and the atmosphere. Lake effect snow is probably the most notable example,” said Van Roekel. “Changes in small scale, near surface circulations can dramatically influence storm development and movement. As the larger climate changes, the local weather will be affected. Thus, Northland College offers opportunities to collaborate with the US Geological Survey on how the changing climate will influence Lake Superior and how this feeds back on to local weather.”

At Northland, Van Roekel will serve as a faculty member in the Environmental Sciences department and will deliver courses to the Environmental Geosciences major as well as elective courses and for the Connections program.