assistant professor, department of atmospheric sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Education: Ph. D. (civil and environmental engineering), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; M.S. (civil and environmental engineering), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; B.A. (civil engineering), Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
Courses teaching: ATMS 405, Boundary Layer Processes; and ATMS 301, Atmospheric Thermodynamics. She will develop a new course in hydrological applications in atmospheric sciences.
Research interests: Hydrological problems, such as understanding the relationship between evapotranspiration and precipitation. She is leading research in the area of climate change that is critical to the U.S. economy.
“Dr. Dominguez’s presence on our faculty will immediately attract students interested in bridging careers across the fields of water and weather, and expand our offerings into the field of hydrometeorology,” said Robert Rauber, a professor and the head of atmospheric sciences. “Her outstanding research is continuously closing the gap between atmospheric science and hydrology by improving our understanding of the interaction between land, water and the atmosphere. She has a reputation of tackling a broad range of hydrological problems, from understanding relationships between evapotranspiration and precipitation to investigating ‘atmospheric rivers,’ narrow bands of atmospheric moist flows that produce catastrophic flooding on the west coast of North America.
“Dr. Dominguez’s newly funded NSF CAREER research is expanding her work into the international arena, investigating land-atmosphere interactions over one of the most heavily populated and economically active regions of South America, the La Plata River Basin. She also is leading research in an area of climate change critical to the U.S. economy, investigating how streamflow, soil moisture and snow accumulation in America’s Southwest will change in the future because of the alteration of atmospheric river flows.”
Why Illinois? “As a graduate of the U. of I., I was familiar with the environment of academic excellence that characterizes the university, and knew this would be the place to take my research to the next level. The department of atmospheric sciences has a vibrant and diverse faculty, with exciting prospects for the future in terms of both research and teaching. The possibility of collaborating in a world-renowned center like NCSA (the National Center for Supercomputing Applications) also was a big draw for me. Both my husband and I are excited to join the Urbana faculty, and our family is ready to begin a new chapter in the charming Champaign-Urbana community. My husband, Sandy Dall'erba, is an associate professor in the department of agricultural and consumer economics (in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences).