For information about joining the lab group see this page.
Mara Freilich
Mara is an assistant professor in the Division of Applied Mathematics and Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Brown University. She earned her PhD in Physical Oceanography in the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in 2021. She has a BSc in Applied Math from Brown University.
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Postdocs
Lilian Dove
Lily received her PhD from Caltech in 2023 and is a NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellow. Her work focuses on submesoscale dynamics and biophysical interactions in the Southern Ocean. Outside of research, she enjoys reading anything except historical fiction and fostering cats.
website
Shailja Gangrade
Shailja ("Shell-ja") is a biological oceanographer specializing in biophysical interactions and plankton ecology. Her postdoctoral research examines the distribution and composition of phytoplankton and bacterial communities observed within (sub)mesoscale circulations. Shailja received her PhD in 2024 from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Outside of research, Shailja has a passion for teaching & community outreach, cooking new recipes, and handbuilding pottery.
Arianna Krinos Quinn
Arianna Krinos Quinn is a microbiologist, a computational scientist, an educator, and a postdoctoral researcher at Brown with the Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet. She received her PhD from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography and Applied Ocean Science and Engineering in 2024.
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Graduate students and post-bac researchers
Élise Beaudin
Élise is a physical oceanographer specializing in diverse projects in the Northeast Pacific. Her research focuses on the imapcts of sea surface temperature on landfall precipitation, marine heatwaves, ocean dynamics variability, and submesoscale bio-physical interactions. She has mentored at various levels, from high school to PhD, and has contributed to public science communication. Her favourite programming language is Python. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing and learning languages.
website
Emily Hu
Emily is a C-CoMP Bridge-to-PhD Fellow in the 2024-2026 cohort. She received her BA in Chemistry from Rutgers University. Her work focuses on the interaction between biogeochemical processes in ocean microbial ecosystems and submesoscale (physical) processes. Outside of research, she enjoys reading short stories, playing mahjong with friends, and spending time with animals.
Alejandra Lopez
Alejandra is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Brown University. She has a B.A. from University of California Los Angeles and a master's degree in GIS from University of Southern California. Her research currently focuses on the Salton Sea using remote sensing.
Katarina Merk
Katarina is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Brown University. She has a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Davis. Her research currently focuses on how eddies influence carbon flux and microbial communities.
Lulabel Ruiz Seitz
Lulabel is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Applied Mathematics at Brown University. Before that, she earned a B.S. Honors in Mathematics at Stanford University. She is currently studying the impact of submesoscale dynamics on the distribution and abundance of biogeochemical tracers. Besides research, she enjoys writing creative nonfiction, watching the NBA, and (most of all) cats.
website
Undergraduate students
Wyatt Sieminski
Wyatt is a 4th year undergraduate at Brown University, concentrating in Geophysics and Climate Physics, and Computer Science. He is currently working on a senior thesis using MITgcm to compare temperature and salinity front interactions with the atmosphere, and is generally interested in problems related to climate modeling. Outside of research, he enjoys hiking and whitewater.
Collaborating students
Erin Okey
Erin is a PhD student in the Division of Applied Mathematics at Brown University. Prior to starting at Brown, she completed a BSc in mathematics at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. She is currently studying how ecological dynamics impact the global ocean carbon cycle. In her free time, she enjoys tennis and jiu-jitsu.
Anna Lo Piccolo
Anna is a PhD candidate in physical oceanography. She studies submesoscale processes in the upper ocean, their role in the ocean biogeochemistry, and how they are represented in global ocean models. She is also interested in polar regions and sea ice-ocean interactions. She likes hiking, reading, and doing creative work.
Alumni
Undergraduates
Anjali Shah, Brown '25 senior thesis student 2024-2025, Next position: Alaska Fellows
Ayushman Choudhury, Brown '25 senior thesis student 2024-2025, Next position: University of Chicago PhD student
Tommy Frank, Brown '25 UTRA 2024
Cassidy Charles, Brown '26 Presidential Scholar Program 2024
Maggie Gonzalez, Loyola University Chicago '26 Leadership Alliance REU 2024
Researchers
Diego Centeno, research assistant 2023-2024, Next position: UCLA PhD student