Jana Houser, Ph.D.

Dr. Houser is a new faculty member in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH where she teaches forecasting, mesoscale, and synoptic meteorology. She grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia, and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Meteorology from Penn State University in 2004. She went on to pursue her Master of Science Degree and Ph.D. in Meteorology in at the University of Oklahoma where she studied under the mentorship of Dr. Howard Bluestein. She has been a professor at Ohio University in Athens, OH since 2013.

Dr. Houser specializes in radar analysis of tornadoes and the supercell thunderstorms that commonly produce them by using state-of-the-art mobile radar observations. She is currently funded by the National Science Foundation to study the interaction of tornadoes with the ground beneath, addressing the problem of how topography and land cover impact tornado intensity and path. She has authored or co-authored 19 peer-reviewed journal articles related to tornadoes and supercells, most of which have been published by the American Meteorological Society. Dr. Houser is the recipient of the Ohio University Jeanette Graselli Brown Faculty Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences, the University Professor award, the College of Arts and Sciences Award for Outstanding Research in the Physical Sciences, and the Ohio University Honor’s Tutorial College Outstanding Mentor of the Year award.

She is the mother of three daughters ages 9, 6, and 3. She enjoys gardening, outdoor sports, running, fitness, cooking, and breeding her two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels on the side. She also spends her free time singing, playing the piano, and serving in various capacities at her church.