Jill C. Derby, a graduate student in geography with a concentration in climatology, has been awarded the 1999/2000 American Meteorological Society (AMS)/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Global Programs Fellowship. The graduate fellowship, which includes a nine-month, $15,000 stipend, was one of 22 awarded in the United States.

The fellowship program is designed for promising students entering their first year of graduate study from a wide range of interests, including meteorology, physics, oceanography, engineering and computer science. Of particular interest to NOAA programs are studies to improve the ability to determine the predictability of the climate system.

A graduate of North Carolina State University, Derby was in the honors program in the Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department and participated in a research program at the Oklahoma Weather Center,

Derby's UD adviser is Laurence Kalkstein, geography. With him, she is working on the development of a new relative apparent temperature-based index, based on the unique climate of a region, to improve the current, widely used indices, such as the National Weather Service's wind chill and heat indices. The index will be used for calculations up to 48 hours in advance and be useful in environmental applications, such as health-related issues.