Rate My Professor Rachel White

Rachel White is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She is an atmospheric scientist whose work centers on large-scale atmospheric dynamics, including circulation patterns and planetary-scale atmospheric waves. A major focus of her research involves examining how these dynamics contribute to extreme weather events such as heat waves and cold snaps. She also investigates fundamental aspects of the current climate and potential changes in atmospheric circulation under anthropogenic warming. Her projects include studies of atmospheric waveguides and their connections to extreme events, sub-seasonal to seasonal predictability of extreme weather, effects of large-scale orography on Earth's climate, and modeling of past climates such as the Last Glacial Maximum.

White runs and analyzes climate models while examining data from atmospheric observations. Her current projects explore connections between Rossby wave propagation and extreme weather, seasonal predictability of atmospheric waveguides, impacts of orography on stationary waves and teleconnections, and simulations of past climates including the early Eocene period. She holds appointments within the Faculty of Science and maintains an active research program in atmospheric and climate science.