Jongkwan (Jacob) Kim

Research Assistant III - Hydrologic & Hydraulic Modeling

Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation

As a Research Assistant 3, Jongkwan (Jacob) Kim, uses his hydro-meteorological modeling experience to add to CIRCA’s research team. Before joining CIRCA, Jacob worked at NOAA and NCAR. He holds a Ph.D. in Hydrology from Utah State University.

With more than 15 years of experience, Jacob’s research focuses on the development, calibration, evaluation, and application of distributed hydrologic and land-surface models. He has made substantial contributions to the WRF-Hydro (National Water Model) framework, including hyper-resolution urban flood inundation modeling, the incorporation of river-ice effects on routing, improvements to Noah-MP interception and infiltration processes, and the integration of lake models (FLake and CLM Lake) into NOAA’s Unified Forecast System. At NCAR, he quantified the hydrologic impacts of cloud seeding on snow, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and runoff in Idaho basins.

Jacob’s current interests include Earth-system variability—particularly the coupled effects of changing snowpack, extreme precipitation, and land–atmosphere interactions on water resources and ecosystems in mountainous and high-latitude regions—and the translation of advanced modeling into actionable forecasts and societal applications.