About me
Originally from Colombia 🇨🇴, I'm currently a Ph.D. candidate studying atmospheric predictability and climate dynamics by leveraging machine learning techniques. I work with Dr. Maria Molina at the Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Department at the University of Maryland 🇺🇸. Currently, I am part of the Fresh Eyes on CMIP initiative, working with the Data Analysis group focusing on multi-model ensembles. I am also part of the American Meteorological Society's Committee on Artificial Intelligence Applications to Environmental Science. Additionally, I recently visited NCAR at Boulder, CO, as part of the Graduate Visitor Program. I focused on evaluating long-term changes on the large-scale mid-latitude circulation and the impacts on surface weather.
I earned a bachelor's degree in engineering and a master's degree in water resources from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia 🇨🇴. My main research interests are large-scale Earth system dynamics, variability, and predictability, extreme weather events, and climate change 🌦️⛈️🌪️. My work has mainly aimed at applying machine learning and numerical modeling to gain a deeper understanding of processes in climate, meteorology, hydrology, and air quality 🌎. In my free time, I enjoy playing and watching sports, watching movies, reading, music ⚽🏓📚🎵!
Research interests
I'm currently deepening my knowledge of Earth system dynamics and machine learning. More specifically, I use recently developed computational and data-driven methods to better understand the processes that modulate the occurrence and characteristics of mid-latitude large-scale weather regimes 🤓. These large-scale features affect people's everyday lives by driving the occurrence of extreme weather events under different climate variability change scenarios 🌎. Some methods I use in my research include tree-based machine learning, deep learning, eXplainable AI, data-driven causal discovery, and unsupervised clustering 💻. I combine these tools with Earth system reanalyses and models to unveil Earth system drivers of subseasonal-to-seasonal predictability and the effects of climate variability and change 🌍🌡️. I look forward to keep exploring these same topics in the future!
My master's thesis was mainly about how the internal dynamics of tropical cyclones behave when the storm is intensifying 🌀, and my undergraduate thesis was about how the origin of air parcels affected the characteristics of extreme precipitation events over the Colombian Andean region ⛰️. Additionally, I have some experience with idealized modeling and empirical forecasts of air quality, meteorological and hydrological variables. I have mostly used Python during my career to handle data from satellite, reanalysis, ground-based stations, radar, and model outputs 🐍.
Find me in
Publications
- (Under review) Molina, M. J., McGovern, A., Perez-Carrasquilla, J. S., & Tanamachi, R. L. (2024)., Using Generative Artificial Intelligence Creatively in the Classroom: Examples and Lessons Learned. Submitted to Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Web access.
- (Accepted) Pérez-Carrasquilla, J. S. & Molina, M. J. (2024)., An Earth-System-Oriented View of the S2S Predictability of North American Weather Regimes. Submitted to Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems. Web access.
- Chen, J., Yang, S., Fang, X., Lin, S., Pérez-Carrasquilla, J. S., Cai, F., Chen, W. & Wu J. (2024)., A novel index for depicting ENSO transition with application in ENSO-East Asian summer monsoon relationship.. Environmental Research Letters. Web access.
- Pérez-Carrasquilla, Jhayron S., Montoya P., Sánchez J. M., Ramírez M. (2023)., Forecasting 24-hour-averaged PM2.5 concentration in the Aburrá Valley using tree-based ML models, global forecasts, and satellite information. Advances in Statistical Climatology, Meteorology and Oceanography, Volume 9, Issue 2, 121–135, 2023. Web access.
- (Master’s thesis) J., Pérez-Carrasquilla & Hoyos, C. D. (2021)., Tropical cyclone rapid intensification: spatio-temporal variability, inner-core dynamics, and environmental control. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín. Web access.
- (Conference Paper) Pérez-Carrasquilla, Jhayron S., and Hoyos, Carlos D. (2021). Characterization of the Thermodynamics, Life Cycle and Influence Over the Mean Flow of Inner Core Processes in Tropical Cyclones: Observational and Idealized Modelling Approach. 34th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology. AMS, 2021. Web access.
- Hoyos, C. D., Ceballos, L. I., Pérez-Carrasquilla, J. S., Sepúlveda, J., López-Zapata, S. M., Zuluaga, M. D., ... & Zapata, M. (2019). Meteorological conditions leading to the 2015 Salgar flash flood: lessons for vulnerable regions in tropical complex terrain. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 19(11), 2635-2665. Web access.
Awards and honors
- (2025) Dr. Eugene Rasmusson Graduate Student Fellowship. The Graduate School, University of Maryland, College Park, US.
- (2025) Dr. Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship. The Graduate School, University of Maryland, College Park, US.
- (2025) Travel award for the Summer CESM Workshop. NSF NCAR.
- (2024) Dr. Richard Payne Graduate Fellowship. College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS), University of Maryland, College Park, US.
- (2024) Best Student Oral Presentation (2nd place), American Meteorological Society’s 23rd Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Environmental Science.
- (2024) US NSF NCAR Advanced Study Program's Graduate Student (GVP) Fellowship.
- (2022-Present) Exploratory Allocation at the NSF NCAR High-Performance Computing (HPC) System.
- (2021) College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences Dean’s Fellowship. University of Maryland, College Park.
- (2020) Facultad de Minas Scholarship at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín. Fully covered tuition for master’s studies.