I grew up in Decatur Arkansas, a small town in the northwest corner of the state. My first research involved building an electromagnetic instrument to investigate EM fields around severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. I then began work at the University of Oklahoma and was involved in research (gas hydrates and other) with OU, NASA, NOAA, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory including nuclear studies of material properties. Afterwards I had the opportunity to work on software at NASA in the GN&C Autonomous Flight Systems Branch of the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics Division for the Morpheus moon lander.
In 2012 I graduated with meteorology and geophysics degrees from the University of Oklahoma and completed my PhD at Penn State in 2017. My hobbies include photography, electronics, hiking/rock climbing, and public service. I currently work as a software engineer at Unidata developing scientific software and as the owner of the consulting and instrument company Leeman Geophysical LLC.
For an academic bio please see my CV.