Michele Fischer (BS, 1999)

Michele Fischer is a 1999 graduate of the atmospheric and oceanic sciences program who, with her husband Frank Fischer (BS, 1997), established the the Frank and Michele Fischer Endowed Scholarship to benefit students within the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Michele grew up just outside of Buffalo and was always fascinated by the weather — including the lake-effect snow that she’d often see. “I’m one of those people who always knew what I wanted to do — and that was study meteorology,” she said. She instantly fell in love with Stony Brook when she took a tour of the campus. “I loved how big it was,” she said. “And I loved being able to take not just atmospheric science classes but also marine science.” During her time at the Marine Sciences Research Center, which became SoMAS, Michele recalled working under Duane Waliser. “He got me involved in a project on the Madden-Julian Oscillation, which is a disturbance of clouds or rain that moves eastward across the tropics,” she said. “This was very beneficial to me later in my career in researching hurricanes and other storm systems.”

After graduation, Michele went on to earn her master's degree from Penn State, and continued working on the research side of meteorology when she and her husband worked at the same company in Boston. Michele and Frank now live with their three children in Bermuda, where's they've been for 18 years.