A benefit of the NEMAC sponsored undergraduate research is the opportunity for students to collaborate with professionals outside of the UNC Asheville campus.  Examples of off-campus collaborators are Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Department of Energy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data Center, Barons Advanced Meteorological Systems, and NOAA- ET7 formerly ETL.  In addition, NEMAC has sponsored student research results being presented at national and international conferences.  This affords an opportunity for UNC Asheville students to meet professionals within their field from around the globe and to gain insight into the broad spectrum of job opportunities that exist and give them the inside track on employment openings through networking.

Another opportunity for UNC Asheville students engaged in research through NEMAC is the opportunity to work with scientists at NOAA’s Physical Sciences Division (PSD, formerly NOAA-ETL) of the Earth System Research Laboratory whose goal is “to provide the observation, analysis, and diagnosis of weather and climate physical processes necessary to increase understanding of Earth’s physical environment, including the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and land, and to enable improved weather and climate predictions on global-to-local scales” (http://www.etlnoaa.gov/).  The NOAA-PSD scientists will be establishing a field experiment in the Southern U. S. that will focus on better understanding wintertime precipitation type and intensity beginning in the Winter of 2008, 2009. UNC Asheville students will play a direct role in supporting this exciting opportunity (http://hmt.noaa.gov/).