I am a physical oceanographer studying the sea ice and ocean around Antarctica.

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Oceanography at University of Washington in Seattle, WA, advised by Stephen Riser. I was funded through a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship from 2017-2021.

The focus of my research is using observations of the ice-covered Southern Ocean to develop a better understanding of sea ice processes and offshore polynyas around Antarctica, as well as their role in global climate.

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Recent news

• September 2022: I presented a poster on “Pushing Seattle towards net zero: Opportunities for local advocacy and engagement” at the UW Program on Climate Change’s Summer Institute in Friday Harbor, WA. The topic of the workshop was “Pathways to net zero.”

• February 2022: At the AGU Fall Meeting in December, Katy Christensen and I virtually presented a retrospective study of our redesign of OCEAN 215, our department’s introductory Python course; here is our abstract and poster. We just learned that we received an Outstanding Student Presentation Award! Stay tuned for a forthcoming paper on our work…

• January 2021: I was selected for a three-year term as the APECS representative to the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) Weddell Sea–Dronning Maud Land Regional Working Group. The RWG is a multinational body that aims to coordinate observations and science in this interesting region of the Southern Ocean.

• December 2020: Katy Christensen and I finished co-teaching OCEAN 215, an introductory Python data analysis course. We adopted a flipped, virtual format and redesigned the course to incorporate a variety of evidence-based teaching practices. Our course website can be accessed at this link; all recorded lessons and other materials are available for reuse.

• May 2020: A new paper led by Lauren von Berg at Princeton and Channing Prend at SIO, titled “Weddell Sea phytoplankton blooms modulated by sea ice variability and polynya formation,” is now out in Geophysical Research Letters. For more details on our study, see Research.

• February 2020: I’ll be presenting new work on Antarctic sea ice growth and melt reconstructions using under-ice ocean observations at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Diego on February 21.

• September 2019: I discussed Weddell Sea polynyas with Dan Jones from BAS on his podcast, “Climate Scientists.” Listen here.

• August 2019: I’ll be speaking about Weddell Sea polynyas at the IGS Sea Ice Symposium in Winnipeg on August 23 and at the NYU Courant AOS Colloquium in New York on September 4.

• June 2019: My first paper as lead author, titled “Antarctic offshore polynyas linked to Southern Hemisphere climate anomalies,” is out in Nature. See Research for a summary of this study and Publications for links to media coverage.

• April 2019: The third annual UW Program on Climate Change (PCC) Spring Symposium was organized by myself and other members of the PCC Graduate Student Steering Committee. Read my PCC blog post about the event here.

• February 2019: A new paper led by Earle Wilson at UW, titled “Winter upper-ocean stability and ice–ocean feedbacks in the sea ice–covered Southern Ocean,” is out in Journal of Physical Oceanography. For more details on our study, see Research.

• January 2019: Over the next few months, I will be presenting live shows on polar oceanography in the Willard Smith Planetarium at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. This opportunity is thanks to PacSci’s Science Communication Fellowship.