Ryan Gonzalez is from Fort Worth, Texas. He attends Texas A&M University and is going into his senior year. "The main source of freshwater for life on Earth occurs in the form of rain. Extreme rain events can provide this vital water, but they can also cause catastrophe in the form of floods. Thus, an accurate prediction of how extreme precipitation will change in response to warming surface temperatures, and therefore, increased amounts of water vapor, is necessary. "This summer I worked to observe this question using satellite and reanalysis data, from the Global Precipitation Measurement core satellite and ECMWF ERA-Interim datasets, respectively. I merged the two datasets together in order to look at rain rates while varying the values of water vapor. This same process was done with CAPE and vertical profiles of specific humidity to provide a deeper understanding into how other meteorological variables affect extreme rain." Ryan's research poster, may be found here, Evolution of Extreme Precipitation: A Satellite Based Investigation. Ryan's other research interests include mesoscale meteorology, severe weather, and climate change. In his free time, he enjoys playing soccer, kiteboarding, and spending time outdoors.