Joby Hilliker was raised on a dairy farm in Chemung, New York, a rural town near the Pennsylvania border. He has had an affinity for meteorology and, in particular, weather forecasting since the second grade. It is no doubt this interest was kindled when a powerful tornado destroyed several homes in his home town in 1983.
Joby became a member of the Weather Communications Group during his second year of graduate studies here at Penn State. He has worked as an intern at Accu-Weather and has volunteered his time helping his peers in physics, mathematics, and meteorology classes. His primary academic interests include studying lake-effect snow events and implementing statistics in meteorological data. “Meteorology was an innate affinity for me. While at Penn State, I observed this characteristic was true for my peers. It was also great to share this common bond, which naturally extended beyond the classroom.”
Dr. Joby Hilliker got his start in Meteorology from Penn State, and after receiving his Doctorate in December 2002, he moved to Cincinnati where he worked as a forecast expert for Cynergy Corporation. While at Penn State, Dr. Hilliker worked as a weather forecaster for Accu-weather and a writer for a page in the New York Times. He also taught an introductory meteorology course at his alma mater, all in addition to appearing on Weather World and volunteering his tutoring to fellow students.
In 2000, Dr. Hilliker won the ZedX Weather Information Technology Award, which recognized him as a Penn State student who “contributed to the use of advanced technology in improved utilization of weather observations or numerical guidance for specialized forecast applications.” Dr. Hilliker also wrote several papers for the American Meteorological Society from 1999 to 2004 which relate to statistical weather forecasting.
Currently, Dr. Hilliker is an assistant professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania in West Chester, PA. He teaches an atmospheric principles course for general education as well as an introductory meteorology course for earth science majors.
Dr. Hilliker offers his advice to incoming students, simply, “Don’t do it alone. Participate in groups or activities, particularly in your major or department” and to departing seniors, “First, patience...Second, don’t feel pressured to ‘get it right’ with your first job.”
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Joby Hilliker
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