Alyssa Cannistrasi
Alyssa Cannistrasi
Prog Spec II, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
Alyssa just completed her master’s degree this past December. She was a member of the Climate Lab and worked with Kelsey Ellis. She compared how tweets spread (“diffused”) during a winter-weather and tornado-outbreak event. Her bachelor’s degree is in meteorology with a minor in mathematics. She is very interested in improving science communication through research, education, or outreach. Alyssa recently landed a position with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)’s Mesoscale & Microscale Meteorology Laboratory. NCAR, and the larger University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) (both based in Boulder, Colorado), supports a wide variety of research topics from climate modeling and earth systems observing to solar-terrestrial physics and science education. In her position, Alyssa provides research support and assistance to a variety of concurrent projects, each focused on improving weather communication. Two projects include analyzing tweets during the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season to study what information is understood during a natural hazard, and conducting a survey to research how people respond to winter weather. While at UTK, Alyssa held various roles within the department. She served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Classroom Producer. She was also quite involved with GeoGrads, and helped manage the department’s website/ social media pages. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her beloved hamster and doggo. A recent hobby, discovered via 2020, is tending to houseplants. She now has many many plants. Some of her favorites include String of Pearls (a succulent), Crimson Queen (a Hoya), and Echeveria (genus of succulents).