Hello!

I’m a PhD candidate and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography advised by Drs. Anne Cohen and Delia Oppo. I’m broadly interested in understanding how tropical oceans and coral reefs have responded to past and present climate variability. More specifically, my research explores the links between basin-scale marine heatwaves, the amplitude and spatial structure of localized heat anomalies, and the coral response to extreme heat across shallow water coral reefs. Through my research, I aim to develop a better understanding of coral reef thermal tolerance thresholds through time as well as revise predictions of 21st century coral reef survivorship, bleaching, and mortality across tropical basins.

I graduated from Rutgers University in 2020 with a degree in Geology and minors in Physics and Marine Science. At Rutgers, I conducted research on North Atlantic sea surface and thermocline temperature changes following the Miocene Climatic Optimum, advised by Drs. Kenneth Miller and Maria Makarova.

Updates

February 2023: I presented a poster at the 2024 Ocean Sciences Meeting titled The contribution of climate variability to coral bleaching in the Caribbean.

November 2023: After months of preparation and organization, the 17th annual Graduate Climate Conference was held at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. This year, I served as one of three conference co-chairs and led the Abstracts committee.

September - October 2023: I spent 4 weeks in Majuro, RMI conducting fieldwork as part of the Super Reefs project. I assisted in coral coring, benthic surveying, and the deployment of various oceanographic sensors, as well as coral nubbin collection for heat stress tests carried out by the Palumbi Lab at Stanford University.

August 2023: I organized and led my first fieldwork campaign as Chief Scientist. With funding from a WHOI Ocean Ventures Fund, I spent 10 days in Curaçao conducting coral coring fieldwork with members of the Cohen Lab. We collected 41 cores from 4 sites on the leeward side of the island, which will be used to reconstruct a comprehensive coral bleaching history of the island.

July 2023: The first chapter of my PhD has been published.

April 2023: My undergraduate honors thesis paper has been published.

December 2022: I presented a talk at the 2022 AGU Fall Meeting titled Sr-U thermometry tracks ocean temperatures and corrects for Sr/Ca vital effects in a slow-growing Atlantic coral.

November 2022: I attended the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27) as part of the inaugural Ocean Pavilion.

October 2022: I helped organize and presented a poster at the 2022 Graduate Climate Conference.