Women in the Tropics: Contributions to Our Understanding of Tropical Cyclones in Vertical Wind Shear

The contributions of female scientists have played a fundamental role in increasing our understanding of tropical cyclone dynamics, thermodynamics, and convection from theoretical, observational, and numerical modeling perspectives. One area in which their research has been especially insightful is how tropical cyclones evolve in, and respond to, environmental vertical wind shear. From the formative studies of Jenni Evans, Sarah Jones, and Elizabeth Ritchie elucidating the physical processes by which shear affects TC structure and intensity, to the climatologies of Deanna Hence, Shuyi Chen, Stephanie Stevenson, and Jennifer DeHart documenting shear-induced TC asymmetries, to the recent studies by Dandan Tao and Rosimar Rios-Berrios exploring the predictability of TC intensification in sheared environments, women have made pivotal contributions to our knowledge of the ways TCs interact with the environments in which they are embedded. This presentation will review the important contributions of the women that motivated me as a graduate student and discuss the exciting work of the up-and-coming superstars in the field whose research inspires me today.