James Larson, first author on new Nature publication

James Larson is the first author on a new Nature paper titled “Signature of the western boundary currents in local climate variability.” Larson conducted the research as a master’s student at Colorado State University, and he is currently an Atmospheric Science doctoral student in the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering. 

“The western boundary currents are the most dynamic, the fastest moving,” said Larson, “They have these giant swirling eddies and meanders. These currents are sort of like the equivalent of a raging river. There’s just so much going on and it’s about capturing everything that’s going on there.” 

Larson started down the road to research as an undergraduate student. His favorite classes were fluid dynamics while earning his degree in aerospace engineering. Pursuing this interest, he got involved in undergraduate atmospheric science research with Alex Gonzalez.  

Working with Gonzalez, Larson got curious about how important the ocean is to climate and how the ocean is represented in climate models. Gonzalez completed his doctoral work at CSU’s Atmospheric Science Department in 2015. Gonzalez encouraged Larson to apply for graduate school.   

“I’ve had wonderful advisors who guided me to this point,” said Larson.  

He can be found leading work outside with Rams Against Hunger to fight food insecurity in the community when he is not on his computer. “I love this research, but it’s all computer work. I like coding. It’s fun. Sometimes it’s difficult to do that all day, every single day, though. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. The [food insecurity] project is a good way to be in the CSU community — getting away from the computer and getting my hands dirty and actually being outside, which I love.”