When Ángel Adames-Corraliza was 10, a Category 4 tropical cyclone named Hurricane Georges tore its way across Puerto Rico.

“We were up all night. The walls were trembling,” he says. “It was terrifying.”

The next morning revealed the devastation brought by 150-mph gusts. “I had this childish conception about nature, that it was a noble, welcoming place,” he says. “Then a hurricane comes and destroys everything.”

Twenty-seven years later, Adames-Corraliza, ’13, ’16, has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship—also known as the “Genius Grant”—for his work unraveling the forces that govern tropical weather. The storm that upended his childhood world gave him a purpose.

He studied physics in college in Puerto Rico to prepare for graduate studies in atmospheric science. An internship the summer of his sophomore year landed him at the University of Washington in the lab of Thomas Ackerman, professor of atmospheric sciences and director of the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies (then known as the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean). His assignment: study the photometry of snow. “Which is not tropical at all,” Adames-Corraliza says with a laugh. “I had never seen snow before.”

Still, the adventure—one of his first trips away from home—provided a chance to test his plans. “The program was what I’d dreamed of: a wonderful opportunity to work in one of the best departments, with well-known experts,” he says.

…