This week, we announced the winners of the 4th Annual OU Creaties. These awards celebrate the best new websites built by OU Create users.

We had more than a hundred wonderful nominees this year, and the student portfolios and blogs were particularly outstanding as a group. The different types of portfolios made picking a single winner nearly impossible, so we decided to give two awards for best student portfolio.

John Stewart giving the award for best student portfolio to Kevin Thiel.

In his website, Kevin Thiel blogs and shares visualizations from his work on meteorology. His research on the science of lightning draws on advanced technological instrumentation, high level science, Python coding, and public outreach, all of which are discussed in his posts. Kevin also shares photographs like this one of a wall cloud (often a harbinger of tornadic activity) in Morton, TX.

Wall cloud above a field of red-brown dirt in Morton, TX.

You can find more of Kevin’s photography and read about his research at thielwx.oucreate.com.

Congratulations Kevin on your fantastic work.

You can see more of the winners in this video and in our blog post series coming out in the next week.