About
Jim is a Senior Technical Staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. His research has focused within the realm of atmospheric weather radars, with foci in optimal waveform design, digital signal processing, radar network design and optimization, algorithm development and machine learning, and high spatiotemporal resolution phased-array/dual-polarimetric observations of supercell thunderstorms and tornadoes. He currently studies applications of polarimetric, rapid-scanning, and phased-array weather radars to a plethora of meteorological topics. These include deep learning techniques for tornado detection and prediction, machine learning methods for detection and characterization of non-hydrometeorological distributed targets, design and optimization of both weather radar waveforms and networks, adaptive digital beamforming design and optimization, and analysis of the impacts of both radar scanning modes and radar network design on performance of severe weather warnings and quantitative precipitation estimation.
Jim is the current Chair of the AMS STAC Committee on Radar Meteorology, and has served as Chair of the AMS Local Chapter Affairs Committee, a member of the AMS Board on Outreach and Informal Education, an Associate Editor for AMS Monthly Weather Review and AMS Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems, and a Senior Member of the IEEE. He was a co-Chair of the 2023 AMS Conference on Radar Meteorology and the 2025 AMS Symposium on Radar Research to Operations, and has served as a Track Chair and Program Area Lead at multiple IEEE Radar Conferences. Jim was awarded the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Early Career Technical Achievement award in 2021, the Tommy C. Craighead award for Best Paper in Radar Meteorology at OU in 2015, and the OU School of Meteorology Director’s Award for Outstanding Service to the Graduate Program in 2012. Jim is also an avid photographer. He specializes in lightning photography and motion timelapse videography, but also takes photos of severe storms, clouds, and other natural phenomena.
File Usage Rights
The photo and video files on this website are provided for general use under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, unless otherwise noted. You are welcome to use this material as long as you provide clear credit to Jim Kurdzo and follow the terms of the license. Use of any file without proper acknowledgement or prior permission may constitute copyright infringement.
Some works were created as part of state or federally funded field programs and research projects. Inappropriate use of those files may also conflict with state and/or federal regulations. If you have any questions about how you may use a particular file, please contact Jim directly.
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
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This photo gallery is based on Piwigo.
Piwigo is a photo gallery software for the web, built by an active community of users and developers. Extensions make Piwigo easily customizable. Icing on the cake, Piwigo is free and opensource.