I am an upcoming fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying environmental sciences and applied mathematics. As an undergraduate, I have been exposed to two main disciplines of oceanography. The first is observational physical oceanography with Dr. Harvey Seim at UNC. The second is geochemical ocean modeling with Dr. Shuang Zhang at Texas A&M University.
My long-term interests include finding a way to combine my experiences in observational oceanography with modeling. The concept of data assimilation seems interesting, but I must admit I have not hit a level of understanding to further comprehend the topic (to be worked on in the future)! More seriously, I am hopeful to leverage both observational and modeling methods to improve scientific understanding of marine carbon dioxide methods and mechanisms. As I apply to PhD programs in the upcoming fall semester, I hope to discover and learn more.
I find it both fascinating and terrifying that there already exists many startups/companies looking to build upon the science of mCDR for real applicability. I’m hoping as a society we “figure out” the global warming and climate change problem, but before that, we must first figure out and answer all scientific questions that could accelerate or impede progress in the field.
Besides the oceanography bit, I enjoy reading novels (or at least trying to), cooking, playing guitar, and watching/playing soccer.