Mentorship & Teaching

Philosophy Dissertation Advising Student Research Teaching

Teaching Philosophy

Teaching Mission

My teaching philosophy centers on encouraging students to enjoy learning climate science through passionate instruction, open communication, and empathy. I recognize that climate dynamics can be conceptually and technically challenging, so I break complex ideas into manageable components and adapt my approach to meet each student’s needs. By combining clear explanations, one-on-one guidance, and an open-door policy, I strive to create an inclusive and supportive environment where students feel motivated and confident to engage with physical processes, mathematical reasoning, and technical tools that underpin the climate system.

Thesis and Dissertation Supervision

  • Bradley Vernon (2025): Improving Seasonal Precipitation Forecasts in the Western United States Through Statistical Downscaling. M.Sc., USU.
  • Kenneth K. Pomeyie (2024): Impact of Snow Accumulation on Structural Integrity: Present and Future Perspectives. Ph.D., USU.
  • Krishna Borhara (2024): El Niño Prediction at 1- and 3-year Lead Times Driven by the Western North Pacific Precursor and Their Impacts. Ph.D., USU.
  • Anthony Reis (2024): Multidecadal Data Demonstrates the Role of Climate and Natural History Traits in Shaping Butterfly Phenology. M.Sc., USU.
  • Naveen Duhan (2023): Machine Learning and Data Mining in Complex Genomics Big Data: Developing Efficient Tools to Advance Computational Systems Biology. Ph.D., USU.
  • Jacob Stuivenvolt-Allen (2022): Impacts of the Changing Pacific on North American Drought, Atmospheric Rivers, and Explosive Cyclones. Ph.D., USU.
  • Zachary F. Johnson (2020): Remote Ocean Forcing on Interannual-to-Decadal Climate Variability Through Inter-basin Interactions. Ph.D., USU.
  • Henrik Panosyan (2020): A Stratospheric Approach to Diagnose the North American Winter Dipole. M.Sc., USU.
  • Emily J. Wilkins (2020): Using Social Media to Assess the Impact of Weather and Climate on Visitation to Outdoor Recreation Settings. Ph.D., USU.
  • Hadia Akbar (2019): Ranchers Adapting to Climate Variability in the Upper Colorado River Basin, Utah. M.Sc., USU.
  • Boniface O. Fosu (2018): Towards the Prediction of Climate Extremes with Attribution Analysis Through Climate Diagnostics and Modeling: Cases from Asia to North America. Ph.D., USU.

Graduate and Undergraduate Advising

Major Advisor

  • Zachary F. Johnson, Ph.D. (Climate) (2017–2020)
  • Henrik Panosyan, M.Sc. (Climate) (2018–2020)
  • Sakshi Solanki, Ph.D. (Climate) (2021)
  • A K M Nahid Hasan, Ph.D. (Climate) (2021–present)
  • Timothy E. Wright, Ph.D. (Climate) (2021–present)
  • David Evans, Ph.D. (Climate) (2021–present)

Co-Advisor

  • Bradley Vernon, M.Sc. (Climate) (2022–2025)
  • Bradley Vernon, Ph.D. (Climate) (2025–present)

Committee Member

  • Boniface O. Fosu, Ph.D. (Climate) (2017–2018)
  • Hadia Akbar, M.Sc. (Water Resources Engineering) (2018–2019)
  • Emily Wilkins, Ph.D. (Environment and Society) (2017–2020)
  • Jacob Stuivenvolt-Allen, Ph.D. (Climate) (2021–2022)
  • Kenneth K. Pomeyie, Ph.D. (Statistics) (2021–2024)
  • Krishna Borhara, Ph.D. (Climate) (2021–2024)
  • Naveen Duhan, Ph.D. (Plant Science) (2022–2023)
  • Raghav Kataria, Ph.D. (Plant Science) (2023–present)
  • Motasem Abualqumboz, Ph.D. (Civil & Environmental Engineering) (2022–present)
  • Grace Affram, Ph.D. (Climate) (2023–present)
  • Soren Struckman, Ph.D. (Ecology) (2023–present)
  • Anthony Reis, M.Sc. (Ecology) (2023–2024)
  • Anthony Reis, Ph.D. (Biology) (2025–present)
  • Cody Ratterman, Ph.D. (Climate) (2024–present)
  • Casey Olson, M.Sc. (Climate) (2024–present)

Undergraduate Research

  • Bradley Vernon (Fall 2021)
  • Casey Olson (Spring 2022)
  • Aaron Weaver (Spring 2024)

Supervised Student Outcomes

Publications
  • Y. Chikamoto, Zachary F. Johnson, S.-Y. Simon Wang, M. J. McPhaden, T. Mochizuki
    El Niño–Southern Oscillation Evolution Modulated by Atlantic Forcing
    Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. doi
  • Zachary F. Johnson, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, Jing-Jia Luo, Takashi Mochizuki
    Ocean Impacts on Australian Interannual to Decadal Precipitation Variability
    Climate. doi
  • Zachary F. Johnson, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, S.-Y. Simon Wang, Michael J. McPhaden, Takashi Mochizuki
    Pacific decadal oscillation remotely forced by the equatorial Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans
    Climate Dynamics. doi
  • Jacob Stuivenvolt-Allen, Shih-Yu Simon Wang, Zachary F. Johnson, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto
    Atmospheric Rivers Impacting Northern California Exhibit a Quasi-Decadal Frequency
    Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. doi
  • Jacob Stuivenvolt-Allen, Simon S.-Y. Wang, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, Jonathan D. D. Meyer, Zachary F. Johnson, Liping Deng
    Growing Pacific Linkage with Western North Atlantic Explosive Cyclogenesis
    Journal of Climate. doi
Presentations
  • Johnson, Z. F., Y. Chikamoto, J. J. Luo, and T. Mochizuki
    Ocean Impacts on Australian Interannual to Decadal Precipitation Variability
    American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, Dec 9–13, 2019; San Francisco, California.
  • Johnson, Z. F., Y. Chikamoto, J. J. Luo, and T. Mochizuki
    Ocean Impacts on Australian Interannual to Decadal Precipitation Variability
    American Meteorological Society, Jan 6–10, 2019; Phoenix, Arizona.
  • Johnson, Z. F., J. J. Luo, and Y. Chikamoto
    Ocean Impacts on Australian Interannual to Decadal Precipitation Variability
    Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, Jun 3–8, 2018; Honolulu, Hawaii.

Publications
  • Nahid A. Hasan, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, Michael J. McPhaden
    The influence of tropical basin interactions on the 2020–2022 double-dip La Niña
    Frontiers in Climate. doi
Presentations
  • Hasan, N. A., Y. Chikamoto, M.J. McPhaden, J.-Y. Lee, Y.-Y. Kim, and W. Park
    Influence of Tropical Basin Interactions on the 2020–23 La Niña
    Ocean Sciences Meeting, Feb 18–23, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana.

Publications
  • Timothy E. Wright, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, Joseph D. Birch, James A. Lutz
    Remote Sensing Detection of Growing Season Freeze-Induced Defoliation of Montane Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Southern Utah, USA
    Remote Sensing. doi

Publications
  • Bradley Vernon, Wei Zhang, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto
    Improving seasonal precipitation forecasts in the Western United States through statistical downscaling
    Environmental Research Letters. doi
Presentations
  • Vernon, B., Zhang, W., and Y. Chikamoto
    Improving Seasonal Forecasts in the Western United States through Statistical Downscaling
    AGU Annual Meeting, Dec 9–13, 2024; Washington, D.C..
  • Vernon, B., Zhang, W., and Y. Chikamoto
    Statistical Downscaling as a tool for Improving Seasonal Forecasting in the Western United States
    Spring Runoff Meeting, Mar 26–27, 2024; Logan, Utah.

Teaching

Regular Courses at USU

  • PSC 4810/6810: Climate and Climate Change; Fall 2019, 2020, 2021.
  • PSC 4840/5850/6840: Atmospheric Dynamics (formerly Climate Dynamics); Fall 2024.
  • PSC 4860/4900/5860/6860: Atmospheric Thermodynamics (formerly Climate Thermodynamics); Spring 2025, Fall 2020, 2021, 2023.
  • PSC 4880/5880/6880: Earth System Science; Spring 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025.
  • PSC 4740/4900: Climate Science Practicum; Spring 2022, 2024, Fall 2021.
  • PSC 6125: Climate Modeling and Simulation; Fall 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022.
  • PSC 6890/7890: Plants, Soils, and Climate Graduate Seminar; Spring 2018, Fall 2017.
  • PSC 7900: Climate Model Application; Spring 2018.
  • PSC 7900: Tropical Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction; Spring 2022, Fall 2019.

  • Guest Lecture for Climate Modeling and Simulation, December 11, 2024, Department of Integrated Climate System Science, Pusan National University, South Korea.
  • Guest Lecture for Climate System Science, December 13, 2024, Research Center for Climate Sciences, Pusan National University, South Korea.
  • Guest Lecture for Climate and Climate Change, Summer 2023, Department of Soil and Environmental Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan.
  • Guest Lecture for CESM Summer School, August 9–11, 2018, Institute for Basic Science, Pusan National University, South Korea.
  • Guest Lecture for CAS 6001: Climate Adaptation Science Colloquium, Fall 2017, Utah State University.
  • Guest Lecture for PHYS 3880: Advanced Physics Laboratory, Spring 2022, Utah State University.
  • Guest Lecture for WATS 3000: Oceanography, Spring 2022, Utah State University.
  • Instructor of Unix Shell, September 9–10, 2017, Utah State University.
  • Guest Lecture for Japanese High School Lecture: Is the Earth warming?, October 10, 2014, Honolulu, Hawaii.
  • Guest Lecture for Meteorological Society of Japan: Predictability and Dynamics, August 6–8, 2007, 19th Summer School, Hokkaido, Japan.

  • Teaching Assistant, April 2002–March 2005, Hokkaido University, Japan
    Graduate-level classes including programming, GrADS, Linux, dynamic meteorology, ocean dynamics, and CTD observations.
  • Teaching Assistant, April–September 2001, 2002, Hokkaido University, Japan
    Undergraduate lab instruction on fluid dynamics, weather map drawing, and ocean salinity analysis.
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