Dr. Justin Dodd is a geological oceanographer who uses isotope and geochemical techniques to reconstruct past climate and oceanographic conditions. His research focuses on sediment cores collected from the seafloor. Potential REU projects include: 1) Geochemical analysis of sediment cores from the Ross Sea, Antarctica, to assess sea-ice extent during warm periods in Earth’s past, and 2) geochemical and micro-image analyses of secondary mineral growth in sedimentary and basalt rocks through interaction with seawater.
Dr. Jessica Fitzsimmons (Program Co-Director) is a chemical oceanographer whose research focuses on the cycling of trace metals in the ocean. She studies both the processes that control the cycling of metals that are required as nutrients for photosynthesizing plankton (such as iron) as well as the delivery of pollutant trace metals to the oceans (such as lead). Her work utilizes mass spectrometry to determine trace metal concentrations, the size and complexation of these metals, and their isotope signatures, and her research projects range from Antarctic oceanography to deep-sea mining in the subtropics. Potential REU projects include: 1) Measuring the binding capacity of toxic and tracer metals by organic compounds before and after deep-sea mining; 2) Exploring the role of nanoparticulate metals in the dissolved metal inventories of the South Pacific and Southern Oceans.
Dr. Darren Henrichs (Program Director) is a biological oceanographer with research interests in applying machine learning to biology, simulation modeling of phytoplankton, and time series analysis of phytoplankton community dynamics. Potential REU projects include: 1) Use of reinforcement learning for training a phytoplankton behavioral model; 2) Application of recurrent neural networks for developing a predictive model of the phytoplankton community using historical time series; 3) Development and application of an image classifier using a convolutional neural network for use on a mini-computer (e.g. Raspberry Pi); 4) Combining small electronic sensors to measure the environment in a mesocosm; 5) Identifying potential origins of bloom forming species using an individual-based model.
Dr. Sarah Hu is a biological oceanographer interested in revealing what marine microorganisms are found where, and why. She uses techniques including molecular analysis (e.g., DNA/RNA extractions and PCR), microscopy (cell enumeration and imaging), laboratory incubations of natural microbial communities, and computational biology to explore the ecological role of single-celled microbial eukaryotes (also called protists). Potential REU projects include: 1) Exploring how environmental parameters in the Gulf of Mexico (from the coast to offshore) impact the composition and biomass of microbial communities; 2) Generation of a database of deep-sea microbial eukaryotic sequences, images, and inferred ecological roles, using existing datasets.
Dr. Spencer Jones is a physical oceanographer who studies the pathways of water through the ocean. He combines ocean models with methods from Calculus 1&2 to understand how the ocean works. Potential projects include: 1) analyzing the trajectories of surface floats and their statistics, 2) analyzing the output of climate models to identify where large scale ocean circulation drives surface heat fluxes, and 3) using generative machine learning to create artificial observations from ocean and climate models.
Dr. Andrew Klein is a geographer whose research focuses on the application of remote sensing and Geographic Information Science (GISci) to study the cryosphere. Dr. Klein is actively involved in using these technologies to study the localized human impacts in the marine and terrestrial environments surrounding U.S. scientific stations in the Antarctic. Dr. Klein and his students also use remote sensing to study glacier recession in the tropics. He has been actively involved in developing algorithms to measure snow extent and snow albedo from satellites, especially that collected by the NASA’s MODIS instrument. Dr. Klein’s potential REU topics will revolve around using mapping and geospatial analysis to investigate human impact in the local terrestrial and marine environments surrounding McMurdo and Palmer Stations, Antarctica as determined from over a decade of geochemical and biological measurements.
Dr. Angie Knapp is a chemical oceanographer focused on marine nitrogen cycling, and specifically how geochemistry can quantify the processes that add, remove, and cycle this biologically important element in the environment. The overarching theme of her research is identifying and quantifying the dominant sources of nutrients fueling marine photosynthesis, especially in the nutrient-poor interior of ocean gyres, using geochemical tools. She works across a range of physical scales, from physiological studies of phytoplankton to ocean basin-scale projects to quantify fluxes of nitrogen and phosphorus to and from the ocean. Potential REU projects include measuring dissolved organic nutrient concentrations in samples collected in the northern Gulf.
Dr. Yina Liu is a chemical oceanographer interested in understanding processes affecting the production and fate of organic compounds, from natural dissolved organic matter (DOM) to anthropogenic compounds, as well as different cell metabolites. She employs state-of-the-art mass spectrometry to study the production and transformation of organic molecules through biotic and abiotic mechanisms through laboratory experiments and field observations. Potential REU projects include: (1) Assessing the performance of solid-phase extraction (SPE) methods for organic compounds with diverse chemical properties; (2) Understanding the occurrence of emerging contaminants in different water bodies; and (3) Using data science to understand possible chemical characteristics of halogenated volatile organic compound precursors.
Dr. Davide Oppo is a geological oceanographer and marine geologist whose research lies at the intersection of sedimentology, biogeochemistry, and geophysics. His work focuses on the multidisciplinary study of methane seepage in the oceans, with an emphasis on how fluid flow and gas hydrate systems shape seafloor morphology, carbon cycling, and benthic ecosystems. He integrates high-resolution geophysical data (including multibeam echosounder and sub-bottom profiler/seismic reflection imaging) with sediment cores, benthic foraminifera, and stable isotope geochemistry to reconstruct past and present methane emissions from the seafloor and assess their impacts on marine environments. Potential REU projects include: 1) Interpreting multibeam echosounder and sub-bottom profiler data to map seepage areas and characterize associated seafloor features; 2) Analyzing benthic foraminiferal carbon and oxygen stable isotopes to identify the geochemical imprint of methane seepage and constrain fluid-flow histories; 3) Classifying benthic foraminiferal assemblages to evaluate how near-seafloor methane fluxes influence community structure and habitat conditions.
Dr. Jason Sylvan is a biological oceanographer. His lab studies the geomicrobiology and biogeochemistry of the deep ocean including hydrothermal ecosystems, deep-sea corals, and the subseafloor deep biosphere in sediments and volcanic basement. Dr. Sylvan's research addresses fundamental questions about the biology, chemistry and geology of the Earth through the study of interactions between the ocean crust and the marine biosphere. Potential REU projects include: 1) quantification of microbial cells from hydrothermal vent samples 2) analysis of microbial genomes from deep-sea corals and hydrothermal vents, or 3) microbial culture-based experiments determining growth and utilization of substrates by different microbial species.
Dr. Dan Thornton is a biological oceanographer. His lab is interested in how microorganisms have played, and continue to play, a profound role in shaping how the Earth functions as a complex system. Research in the Thornton lab straddles traditional disciplinary boundaries and uses a combination of controlled laboratory experiments and observations in the natural environment.
Dr. Jinbo Wang specializes in physical oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics, and satellite oceanography, focusing on the upper ocean's role in Earth's climate system—particularly small-scale processes. His lab combines conventional and satellite observations, theoretical tools, and numerical models to study upper-ocean physics and their broader impacts. Potential REU Projects: 1) Analysis of in-situ observations and data from the new Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission to study small-scale ocean processes and 2) Machine learning applications using SWOT data to develop foundation models for tasks such as separating ocean dynamical systems, image segmentation, and object identification
Dr. Shuang Zhang is an interdisciplinary geochemist, modeler, and data scientist. His work integrates extensive data mining, spatiotemporal analysis, and machine learning. He studies elemental fluxes in the global carbon and biogeochemical cycles and the processes that regulate these cycles, particularly during periods of climatic perturbation. His recent research focuses on quantifying the potential of enhanced rock weathering to reduce atmospheric CO2 and mitigate climate change, with particular emphasis on carbon cycling in river networks following enhanced rock weathering applications. Potential REU projects include: 1) Investigating carbon cycling and alkalinity transport in river networks following land-based enhanced rock weathering. 2) Assessing the downstream impacts of enhanced rock weathering on ocean chemistry.