MOD Postdoc Spotlight: Filipe Pereira

Filipe in front of the island of Jan Mayen during the 2023 NORSE cruise.

What is your background and what are you working on at the moment?
I started studying biology for my undergrad at the State University of Feira de Santana in Northeast Brazil, which is closer to Alagoinhas, Bahia, where I come from. However, I slowly realized that physics was perhaps more my thing, or rather, it was my mother who noticed that I wasn't very happy with biology. She saw a newspaper article about a major in oceanography at the Federal University of Bahia in the state capital and suggested that it might be more my thing. I applied, got in, and was introduced to physical oceanography in one of the first classes I took there and I loved it. I also started working as a research assistant in a lab with a professor who told me that if I wanted to pursue physical oceanography, I should go to the University of São Paulo (USP) where there were more courses and more focused research. So, I transferred to São Paulo and finished my undergraduate degree and was also lucky enough to get to do a six-month exchange program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMassD). By then I knew physical oceanography was my thing, so I jumped straight into a PhD when I got back. I earned my doctorate from the dual degree program between USP and UMassD about a year ago and joined the MOD lab at Scripps last fall.

At the moment I have a fellowship from the University of California to work on red tides. Because my background includes both biological and physical oceanography, I’ve been working a lot with biological-physical interactions at meso- and submesoscales before. One of the questions I’m thinking about is how the biology can influence the ocean physics. At Scripps, I’m now working with professors Jen MacKinnon and Drew Lucas on using optics to investigate how phytoplankton could be affecting stratification and how that might be a mechanism that sustains red tides.

Filipe at his PhD thesis defense.

What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
I really like going to sea. My degree was technically in observational oceanography, but because of the pandemic, I had to switch over to doing more modeling. Now that fieldwork is a possibility again, I’m excited to get to be in touch with the object I’m studying, the ocean. I didn’t grow up by the coast so for me it always felt like a special thing to go to the ocean, especially when you get to be involved in the kind of bigger research cruises that involve a lot of people from different countries, it’s great!

When you were a kid, did you expect to be a scientist or engineer?
I can’t say I “expected” it, but maybe I can say that I “dreamt” of being a scientist? As a kid, I enjoyed watching documentaries on TV and was generally curious, but the path of a scientist was not something that was a given for me, I guess partly because it was never really made clear how you become one? Sure, you go to college and get multiple degrees and all that, but I think I’m still figuring out what it actually means to “be a scientist”.

Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to study the ocean?
Nothing very particular. Though I did have a freshwater aquarium as a kid and maybe that’s how I got into studying water. To keep the fish healthy, you need to learn about nitrogen cycles and oxygen et cetera, and perhaps that is what led me to go into biology and later oceanography.

What skills or abilities do you think are useful when going to graduate school for oceanography?
I think self-esteem is really important. We’re trained to question everything and not be sure of anything, and that can sometimes leak into your personal life so having a steady foundation of self-esteem is helpful. Perseverance and resilience are also important. Things take time and sometimes you just have to put your head down and stick it out even if it’s not always super fun. Lastly, I’d say it’s important to be aware that failing is ok, in fact, it’s a useful thing because you learn something.

At sea!

What does a typical workday look like for you?
Well, in essence, it typically looks like this: get to the office, sit at my computer to answer emails and work on whatever data I’m working on, maybe read some papers, and then go home. Nothing super exciting to be honest. Except when you get to go to sea, of course, that’s a bit more thrilling.

What drew you to Scripps?
It was actually quite serendipitous. I was at a conference with Peter Franks and Jen and we started talking, they got Drew on board and then encouraged me to apply for the fellowship and here we are.

NORSE 2023 cruise

Is there a particular scientist/person/thing that inspires you? Can be anyone or anything!
Oh, so many things! In terms of people, I’m really inspired by my ancestors. Black people have this saying back home that “We are the dream of our ancestors”, meaning that our very existence and all the opportunities we have are connected to the hopes, sacrifices, efforts, and dreams of those who came before us. That sense of legacy motivates me a lot and I take a lot of courage and hope from their stories, in particular my grandmothers. I had the opportunity to live with one of my grandmothers during undergrad, and to be around this wealth of knowledge and wisdom from that generation was truly inspiring.

Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you?

I was once slapped in the face by the first president of Timor-Leste (East Timor). Long story short: Timor-Leste used to be a Portuguese colony, so they still speak some Portuguese. There is a Portuguese consulate in Massachusetts and at some point, when I was on exchange there the university held a reception for the first president of Timor-Leste, Xanana Gusmão, and students were invited. We got to talking and when he learned that I was from Brazil but didn’t attend the opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro because I was in the US, he slapped me in the face, in a kind way but still strong enough to hurt a little, and said that I should have been there!

MOD Student Spotlight: Caique Dias Luko

What is your background and what are you working on at the moment? 
My background is in oceanography, I did both my undergrad and master’s degree in oceanography at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, which is where I’m from. I’m currently in my second year at Scripps and right now I’m working with Jen MacKinnon and Amy Waterhouse on projects that involve the Gulf of Mexico and the Tropical Pacific. Both of these regions are the stage to several phenomena that affect climate and marine ecosystems. Hurricane intensification, the formation of Oxygen Minimum Zones and the El Niño Southern Oscillation are some examples of that. Right now, I am studying how submesoscale motions and internal waves can modulate vertical exchanges of heat and oxygen in these regions. Ultimately I want to understand their contribution to the dynamics of these different phenomena.

Caique and his USP undergrad friends on their last fieldwork trip in Ubatuba, SP - Brazil.

What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
For me, I think it’s mostly curiosity. Whenever I see something interesting, say a figure or photo of a phenomenon in the ocean, I just really want to understand what it can tell us and know more about it. It is even more exciting when that can relate to our daily experiences. Some of my most remarkable memories come from the classroom when I learned the craziest things about the ocean. How would we ever know that the ocean could glow blue at night because of phytoplankton? Or how would we ever know that there are rainier and drier years because of this thing called El Niño? There is so much to learn about our oceans and that keeps me excited!

Caique and his parents at his Bachelor’s degree graduation in 2020.

When you were a kid, did you expect to be a scientist or engineer? 
I didn’t expect to be a scientist, I actually wanted to build houses like my grandfather did. At some point I also wanted to be an Olympic swimmer. But I guess I went into science because I inherited a huge love for nature from my parents. My mom always encouraged me to study and her wish for me has always been to earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of São Paulo. She has really done everything she can to support me and allow me to have that opportunity and I think that’s part of the reason I’m now working towards a PhD.

Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to study the ocean?
I grew up in São Paulo, about 1-3 hours away from the ocean. But my mom and I would go as often as we could and have so much fun every time. Her love for the ocean was definitely contagious!

What skills or abilities do you think are useful when going into oceanography or academia in general? 
I think that having an interdisciplinary background can be to your advantage. Oceanography really spans many different fields, and you might have to connect many different dots from different areas of knowledge at times, so it helps to know a little bit about other things outside your niche.

Caique scuba diving in a coral reef in Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.

What does a typical workday look like for you? 
Typically I wake up, get to the office, do some emails, work on some data analysis and make some plots. At some point I’ll take a break and look at the ocean, and maybe there’s a meeting or seminar in the afternoon. After work, I might go play some beach soccer or go hang out with some friends. Of course, that looks different if you’re doing fieldwork at sea, but on average that is about it.

What drew you to Scripps? 
I think I’ve always known about Scripps as one of the best places in the world to do oceanography, already in my undergrad I read papers coming out of here. It just seemed like a fun place with lots of opportunities to do fieldwork and interesting research. My favorite part is probably that you’re surrounded by so many people doing cool things in the field of oceanography and I learn so much just from being around everyone. The fact that the campus is right on the beach and that the weather is nice in Southern California doesn’t hurt either…

Caique and his mom in Fernando de Noronha, in August 2022, right before he came to Scripps.

Is there a particular scientist/person/something that inspires you?
Firstly I would have to say my mom. She is such a hardworking person, but also super kind and generous and that inspires me a lot. Then I would also have to say my advisors Jen MacKinnon and Amy Waterhouse. They are great advisors and do amazing science, all while managing many different students and projects, and at the same time raising families. They’re just great people overall and that is inspiring to me.

Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you? 
My name “Caique” means “the bird that glides above the sea”. My mom didn’t know that when she gave me my name, but it’s quite a funny coincidence that I then became an oceanographer spending a lot of time on ships gliding around on the ocean. I always think of the frigatebird that soars above the ocean skimming the surface for fish, they can’t dive or swim, but they’re roaming just above the sea surface trying to find their livelihood, it’s not entirely unlike me when I’m on a research cruise!

CTD profiling in the Gulf of Mexico during the SUNRISE 2022 cruise. Photo: Kerstin Bergentz.

Written by Kerstin Bergentz

MOD Student Spotlight: Ankitha Kannad

What is your background and what are you working on at the moment? 
I did my undergrad in physics and geology here in the US at Bryn Mawr College, a small women’s college just outside of Philadelphia. I started out doing physics but then had a bit of an existential crisis halfway through. See, I have always enjoyed environmental work. I even spent a year in between high school and college working for an environmental group and volunteering at a rainforest research institute in India during that time too. During college, I realized that I enjoyed environmental work not just as a side thing but potentially as a career as well. Hence I decided to do geology. I got into oceanography through a summer internship and really enjoyed applying physics to study the ocean. After graduating I ended up spending about 2 years working for a paleo-oceanographer doing data analysis and I got to explore the interactions between the ocean and long-term climate. That is also what I do now in graduate school and my 3rd year at Scripps, although in more real time. I study how small-scale surface processes in the ocean influence rainfall, specifically the monsoon in South Asia together with my advisors, professors Janet Sprintall and Jen Mackinnon.

What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
I like that I can go to sea and actually observe all of this data I'm looking at and I’m excited to get more fieldwork experience. I also really enjoy doing physics and the way it teaches you to approach problems and think about the world. You learn how to simplify a problem to its essential parts and think more deeply about the forces influencing our everyday lives. I like getting to practice that kind of thinking when studying such a complex system as the ocean.

When you were a kid, did you expect to be a scientist or engineer? 
I don't think I specifically thought about being a scientist when I was a kid. 5-year-old me would not have answered “scientist” to “what do you want to be when you grow up?”. My obsession when I was a kid was ancient civilizations and history. I was also exposed to a lot of popular science shows by my parents who are both engineers but probably wasn’t until high school that I really started to think about going into science as a career. I had a great physics teacher who really encouraged us to think and explore and not just learn things to get a good grade on a test. That was an important experience for me.

Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to study the ocean?
I grew up in in Singapore and my family is originally from a coastal town in India so I kind of grew up around the ocean. It had a presence in my life even though I didn’t necessarily spend a lot of time at the beach as a kid. It also felt very natural to move into oceanography from geology. It feels like the intersection of so much that I love and care about - physics, climate change and adaptation especially in many parts of Asia which is where I think I’ll want to work in the future.

What skills or abilities do you think are useful when going into oceanography? 
One thing is to be able to be comfortable with uncertainty. I think that the way science is often taught in school is very deterministic. You have a problem, you solve it using a method you’ve learned, you get an answer, and then you’re done. Actual research is much less certain, and you can’t be afraid of not knowing the right answer, because often you don’t. Making mistakes is part of the process and there is a lot more uncertainty in general. That is hard to learn in a class though, you just have to get into it and practice.

I also think it is important to be able to put things in perspective. In oceanography there are so many different connections to everything from climate science to math and social sciences, and there is a lot you can learn from collaborating with other people. To be a little bit curious about the rest of those fields and to be willing to learn from other people is useful. Being able to put your work in a greater context and think about how you fit into the bigger picture, I think is what makes a good scientist and it can help you stay motivated when it sometimes feels like you’re not making much progress.

 What does a typical workday look like for you? 
I typically spend most of the day working in front of the computer doing data analysis. I'm also just starting out, so I've been spending a lot of time reading papers trying to build a foundational understanding of the things I'm studying and getting started processing and thinking about data from our first cruise in the Arabian Sea.

What drew you to Scripps? 
I think a large part of it for me was being able to get to do observational work, that’s what Scripps is known for. I also applied to graduate school during the Zoom/Covid era (fall of 2020 to start in the fall of 2021) so I didn’t really have a feel for the campus and community. The latter is very important for me after coming from a small college where I really enjoyed that. I’m happy that Scripps although it is big also has that kind of small community vibe at times. Plus, I had spent 6 years on the East Coast and wanted a change. I needed a break from the winter…

Is there a particular scientist/person/something that inspires you?
I've definitely been lucky to have a lot of people who have influenced my path and have been great mentors along the way, but I think the one the person that has been with me the longest is my grandmother. She is not a scientist or does anything related to science, but she just has this wealth of knowledge and understanding of the world. A lot of my favorite memories with her are going out to parks and she would point out all the plants and animals she knows. She also jokes that the kitchen is her laboratory. She is just very curious about everything, a scientist in disguise as a grandmother! Seeing her approach to the world around her reminds me that there's so many people who understand nature in different ways; science is just one approach. I also think that a lot of how much I value community has come from her. My grandparents’ house is always open and people are always coming and going. That sense of community, being welcomed and belonging is something I find invaluable, and it is something I want to work to create around me too.

Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you? 
I have accumulated a lot of musical hobbies, none of which I’m very good at. Growing up I did classical Indian vocal music and piano, and then I played sitar in high school. I recently started doing taiko drumming too. It is quite physical and requires a lot of precision and alignment, but it is very fun!

 Written by: Kerstin Bergentz

MOD Student Spotlight: Andrea Rodriguez-Marin Freudmann

What is your background and what are you studying or working on at the moment? 
My high school experience was fairly generalized, but I wanted to get more hands-on skills for fabrication and design, so I decided to study engineering in undergrad. I got the chance to study tons of math and physics as well as to design and build things (like a recumbent bicycle!). I also did some design work for an underwater mass spectrometer in a deep-sea microbiology lab (the Girguis lab), which was my first introduction to ocean research. I ended up getting my B.S. in mechanical engineering in 2020, though by that point I had started to form an interest in science. I came to SIO in September of that year to start the Physical Oceanography program, which appealed to me because the first year of courses sounded like a good entry into the world of scientific research.

I am now working with a wonderful group of people at SIO including Amy Waterhouse, Mark Merrifield, Peter Franks, Jen Mackinnon, and many others at other institutions. I am using data from the Inner Shelf Dynamics Experiment to piece together how internal waves affect the momentum budget of the West Coast inner shelf. There have been a lot of studies on this region on the East Coast, but the other side of the continent is less well understood and has rather different dynamics. It sounds somewhat distant from real-life applications, but understanding the role that different forces play in the area can be important for predicting ocean flows and circulation, which in turn can help understand coastal problems, for example, red tides and where they will end up.

 What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
The first thing that comes to mind is the sea-going part of oceanography. I love spending time on ships and the camaraderie that comes with working with so many dedicated people. It’s like summer camp for scientists, only with 12-hour shifts! It’s also a great opportunity to pick people’s brains for problems they may have seen in the past or have a different perspective on, in a way that’s much less structured than a meeting or a conference. Plus getting to collect the data to work on is very exciting.

Another element that’s really exciting is the sheer number of open questions. There are so many little contradictions and unknowns that need to be answered and that can be a really rewarding experience. For example, I am using model data, objectively mapped data, and observational data in combination since each one provides a piece of an answer to my question about internal waves and cross-shelf dynamics. Sometimes things seem fully understood (like in the model) or utterly baffling (like in the data) but turn out to be very different from our initial assumptions, and it’s the oceanographer’s job to tease out what’s actually happening.

 When you were a kid, did you expect to be a scientist or engineer?
I wanted to be all kinds of things as a kid, from a singer to a doctor, but I was also always interested in water. I grew up on an island taking a boat to school, I canoed through the Canadian wilderness, I was a swim instructor and lifeguard, etc. Once I got to my teenage years though I realized that I wanted to answer questions and solve problems for practical applications. I decided on mechanical engineering in my first year of undergrad because I enjoyed making things with my hands, and I liked being able to see with my own eyes how things work. My two interests didn’t click until my third year of university when I discovered the field of oceanography, and I realized that there was a job that involved answering questions, using cool tools, and spending time on the water.

 Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to study the ocean?
Like I mentioned, I grew up on an island, the Toronto Islands on Lake Ontario. One thing that always interested me as a child was how different the ocean was from the lake, how the waves were different, the salt felt different, the existence of tides, etc. It was such a different experience between the ocean on holiday and the lake the rest of the time.

The lake would behave differently every year too in ways that would affect us on the ground: there would be flooding one year and not another, the lake would freeze solid or not, etc. Thanks to this variability a lot of discussion would be about how the winter conditions far away from us would affect water levels in the summer, or how strong the winds were once it started to get cold enough to freeze. I think that was when I started to be interested in the “why” of the bodies of water in my life.  

What skills or abilities do you think are useful when going into oceanography?
I think there are a lot of skills that can get you through, since everyone has a pretty different experience. One that is immediately obvious is persistence, since a lot of the time things just don’t work and you have to believe in yourself enough to keep trying. Along with that, and maybe a little contradictorily, is knowing when to stop or pivot, which is maybe the skill of self-awareness? At the end of the day I think someone researching oceanography needs the confidence to keep going in a direction they believe in, as well as the confidence to decide they want to try something else. Then if someone has good time management, math skills, etc. that’s going to be helpful, but that’s generally true for any STEM subject. In my opinion oceanography is uniquely frustrating (and rewarding) because there is so much to study and so little known, so there are a lot of potential paths to go down.

What does a typical workday look like for you?
I usually start by deciding whether I want to work from home or from the office that day, though typically that’s determined by external factors (like meetings, seminars, classes, etc.). In the morning I typically try to start by catching up on emails and then (hopefully) finishing whatever data analysis I started the evening prior, now with fresh eyes. After lunch I do my second email check of the day, and then either go back to data analysis or do something logistical if I am getting too deeply frustrated. If I am really excited about a problem I’ll keep going into the evening, otherwise I’ll sleep on it. Of course this routine is typically disrupted by things happening around the office, grad school is a hectic time whether you like it or not.

What drew you to Scripps?
I had honestly never even heard of SIO until close to the end of undergrad, and then I applied because it sounded like they were open to those who were still figuring out where they wanted to focus their research. I really wanted that first year of coursework in physical oceanography since my background was in engineering, a degree which is useful but not sufficient for ocean science. I also liked that I could pick an advisor at the end of that first year once I had a better understanding of what I liked. I was also seduced by the amount of sea-going that appeared to happen at SIO, which I was very confident I wanted to do.

Is there a particular scientist/person/thing that inspires you?
This one is always hard for me because different people inspire me in different ways. I think someone whom I admire and respect hugely is my partner Alex. He is always interested in learning and never lets challenges at work prevent him from doing projects on the side that interest him. He thinks through problems carefully and always takes his responsibilities seriously. He definitely inspires me to be at his level professionally.

Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you?
I can speak Spanish with a French accent!

MOD Postdoc Spotlight: Yackar Mauzole

What is your background and what are you working on at the moment?
My background is in engineering which I studied after high school in France where I grew up. The system there is a bit different so it sort of worked out to me getting a master’s degree in France. Engineering is considered a very solid career path in France, and though I didn’t love every aspect of it I decided to specialize in something I did like, which is fluid mechanics. We had to do a research internship and that is how I ended up getting into oceanography. I then went to grad school in the US at University of Rhode Island and got another masters and my PhD there. Then I did a postdoc at Caltech/JPL and eventually joined MOD in 2019.

Today I’m using satellite data, in particular sea surface temperature, salinity and altimetry and ocean color, to study many different things in the ocean. Currently I’m looking at data from the Bay of Bengal which was the focus area of the project MISOBoB that MOD participated in and collected data for during a cruise in 2019. The Bay of Bengal which is an interesting region for many reasons, not the least the very strong monsoon and high population density. I focus on the smaller temporal and spatial scales (kilometers and days-weeks). What are the patterns of surface salinity? Are there filaments that are repeatedly formed? How does that impact the monsoon? It’s a really fun and intricate problem.  

What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
There are always new things to learn and discover. You never run out of scientific questions surrounding the ocean. And the questions also vary depending on which ocean you study which is something I’ve realized from working in different places. I guess you could say that oceanography keeps you humble because you constantly get reminded of how much there is left to learn. 

When you were a kid, did you expect to be a scientist or engineer? 
Yes, that was never a question for me. I have always liked science and scored high on the exams throughout my school years. I’ve always known that I wanted to work in the scientific field. 

Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to study the ocean? 
No, not when I was a kid. I’ve tried a lot of things throughout my life and if I liked something I steered in that direction and I think that is why I ended up in this field. I wouldn’t call myself an ocean lover. I get really seasick on boats so that is something I’ve decided not to do. But I like to do specific research and enjoy deep diving into data and finding things that other people might not have found yet. I don’t think that you have to be super passionate about something to be interested in it and enjoy working with it. For example, I am not one of those people who has always loved oceanography. I love the ocean, but it wasn’t a trajectory that was set in stone. And that’s something I’ve enjoyed with the American grad school system, that there are opportunities for people with a diverse background, unlike in France where you have to do oceanography from the start if that’s what you want to get into.

 What skills or abilities do you think are useful when getting into oceanography?
Humility, curiosity, patience, and open-mindedness. Humility is important, the ocean is so vast and there are just so many things we don’t know and it’s important to be able to admit that. Once we admit that we don’t know we can start thinking creatively about out how to measure and better understand things. I also think the ability to set boundaries and remember that your research is not your entire life. Detaching your worth as a human being from your output in academia is super important. The culture in academia is unfortunately not always very supportive of a healthy work-life balance and it takes work prioritizing your mental health and other things that are important to you. It’s not always easy, but I really think that you can make it work.

 
What does a typical workday look like for you? 
That depends. I primarily use satellite data and if there is a question that comes up about something like temperature patterns or surface currents in a region I spring into action. The first thing I do is that I go gather data from various sources online. The advantage with satellite data is that it’s relatively easy to get your hands on multiple months/years of data. I make some figures and try to connect what I see in them with what the literature is saying, what observations are suggesting, and discuss that with Jen and the others. Satellite data is neat because you can add many layers of things. Maybe the front you’re interested in doesn’t appear as clear in sea surface temperature, but it might really stand out in chlorophyll, so I typically play around with many different datasets to try to understand what I’m looking at. Whether I’m investigating a question purely from the satellite data perspective or if the question came from something that was seen in observation can vary, but regardless, my workday is typically a lot of coding!

What drew you to Scripps?
I think that for me it had a lot to do with the people. The MOD group is a fun and inspiring group of people that I was excited to work with, especially Jen. I think it is so important to seek out good coworkers and mentors in academia. It’s tough field and it’s easy to get burned out and discouraged, so to find good people who support you and believe in you is crucial.

Is there a particular scientist/person/thing that inspires you?  
Someone I very much look up to is Dr. Dawn Wright [editor’s note: Chief Scientist at ESRI]. I know from personal experience how hard it can be to be a black woman in oceanography and I can only imagine how much harder it must have been at the time she went through her PhD. When I’ve met her, I’m always struck by how kind of a person she is, she’s truly a bright shining light, and that is something I very much aspire to. Another scientist and human I look up to Dr. Amina Schartup who is an Assistant Professor at Scripps. She’s such a force of nature and always ready to give encouragement and no-bullshit advice.

Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you? 
I call myself a “dry oceanographer”. I study the ocean, but I’m not someone who enjoys being at sea at all. There are many types of oceanography, and though “oceanographer” very often gets mistaken for “marine biologist” for some reason, I’ve learned that oceanography is very popular at customs or immigration. Whenever I am renewing my visa or entering the US, the person I get to talk to looks at my papers and when they see it says “oceanographer” on there always ask “Oh, are our oceans ok?”. I typically answer “yeah, I’m working on it” and that usually gets me the stamp in my passport that I need. Somehow there seems to be a large percentage of people working in immigrations who are very keen on ocean sciences which is perhaps a bit unexpected but very nice to see!

Written by Kerstin Bergentz

MOD Student Spotlight: Kelley McBride

What is your background and what are you studying or working on at the moment? 
I got my bachelor’s degree in ocean engineering at the University of Rhode Island where I studied a little bit of everything, from coastal processes to robotics, acoustics, offshore renewable energy and more. When I graduated, I started working as a contractor for the Department of Defense specializing in acoustics and I really enjoyed the challenges associated with the study of underwater sound. However, I soon realized that I was way more intrigued by the study of the oceans from an interdisciplinary perspective, which is what brought me back to graduate school to study oceanography.

Right now, I’m working with professors Peter Franks and Jen MacKinnon and I’m sort of sitting between the biology and the physics. I get to use skills from my engineering background to study coastal physical processes in order to ask and answer biological questions. It’s a fun, interdisciplinary place to be, and since everything's connected in the ocean, it's exciting to be able to look at multiple perspectives and answer a wide range of questions. My research is a part of the Inner Shelf Dynamics Experiment. More specifically, I’m studying coastal transport patterns driven by the internal tide and wind-driven flows and how their variability directly impacts coastal benthic communities, such as the crabs and mussels you see along the shoreline. This research allows me to continuously learn and evolve as a scientist, which is exciting.

What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
For me, it's looking outside my office window every day and seeing the ocean - it is always different and there are so many questions you can ask to try to better understand it. I’m learning something new about the ocean every single day, and yet I’m continuously reminded of how little we know about it, which constantly motivates me. It’s a privilege to be working at Scripps and to be surrounded by so many amazing scientists and engineers working across so many different disciplines, but everyone’s work ties together which I think is incredible and inspiring.

When you were a kid, did you expect to be a scientist or engineer?
I always dreamt of working in science. I knew early on I was headed in the direction of becoming a scientist or engineer since I always loved math and physics in school. However, once I had an NSF internship studying sand tiger sharks and migratory patterns in the Delaware Bay, I knew I wanted to be an oceanographer and pursue ocean sciences. But I still sometimes have to pinch myself and take a step back and recognize that I am a scientist, and after all these years, I’m getting to do what I’ve always wanted.

Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to study the ocean?
Yes, I would say my mom. She grew up in Newport, Rhode Island and she would always take my family there when we were kids. We spent a lot of time at the cliff walk and Second Beach watching the waves and the sea life, and it was always so amazing just how different the ocean was, between days and seasons, and even different parts of the coast. I just loved the salty water, the rhythm of tides and the sound of the waves - everything about it! So being able to study even just a part of that is amazing.

What skills or abilities do you think are useful when going into oceanography?
I would say for science, regardless of what the field of science it is, being able to say “I don't know”, and not take that as a weakness is a very good approach. Being able to take “I don’t know” as encouragement to go find an answer and to continually evolve your skillset will serve you very well. There is SO much to learn in oceanography and you're never going to be able to have everything figured out. It can be overwhelming and there will be days that are hard. But then there will be days of discovery that are great, and those are such a high. Being able to persevere, making the most of the highs and not being afraid to ask for help during the lows, is an important skill to learn, too.

What does a typical workday look like for you?
Typically, my morning starts with a lot of heavy data analysis in Matlab, and coffee. I try to incorporate a little bit of writing every day, because the end goal of this is getting papers out the door and getting your dissertation together, so I try to hone that skill most days. But ultimately every day is different and can be scattered with meetings, lab meetings, seminars, defenses, talks over coffee, and more.

What drew you to Scripps?
Growing up, I always thought of Scripps as this faraway place where scientists, marine biologists and physicists did such amazing work. I grew up on the East Coast, so Woods Hole [Oceanographic Institution] was right there and was very familiar, but there was something very interesting and unique about Scripps being on the Pacific Coast. The idea of learning about an entirely new coastline and ocean was appealing. Coming to Scripps provided all of that for me and introduced me to a whole new community of incredible people and research, it’s wonderful.

Is there a particular scientist/person/engineer/thing that inspires you?
I could definitely say “everyone here at Scripps”, I am truly inspired by the people that I surround myself with and I feel lucky to be here. But I think I would have to say my sister has inspired me the most throughout my life. She has always been an inspiring scientist and engineer who's encouraged me to pursue higher education. I really take a lot from the way she thinks about life and her career as well as the work that she does - she has so much passion and perseverance behind it, I’m lucky I have her to look up to.

Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you?
I am a huge pasta lover and make a lot of homemade pasta. Pasta is something that has become a big part of my time here at Scripps. On my weekends I often spend my time making various types of pasta - it's actually something that my advisor Peter Franks and I have in common and usually talk about at the end of our meetings. My favorite pasta shape is orecchiette. The name essentially means  “small ear” since it’s a little concaved circle. Pasta making is a great way to take a break from your work at the end of the day, I highly recommend it!

Written by Kerstin Bergentz

MOD Student Spotlight: Ian Stokes

What is your background and what are you studying at the moment? 
My background is in physics. After finishing my undergraduate degree, I worked for a while as an electrical/mechanical engineer building electric pianos before I came back to grad school. Now I’m in my 4th year of the mechanical engineering PhD program at UCSD with Drew Lucas. With Drew as my advisor, my fluid dynamics specialization has more or less morphed into a degree in physical oceanography, and I’m very grateful for the experiences this has provided. At the moment, I am working on planning an observational experiment where we will use optical fibers to study the structure of shoaling internal waves on the inner shelf. I am also preparing a theory paper for submission that describes how nonlinear structure of the oceanic surface boundary layer impacts the power input from the atmosphere to the internal wave spectrum.

What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
It’s very rewarding to work with something I’m super passionate about. I’ve spent time in and around the ocean my whole life and most things I do revolve around it. Climate change is a pressing ‘do or die’ issue that our generation is going to have to figure out, and there is no doubt the ocean plays a huge role in all that. They say we know more about the moon than we do about the ocean. It is exciting to know there is so much left to learn! At the end of the day though, I am always thinking about how I am going to help figure out a solution to some part of this problem. I want to use my understanding of the ocean to help protect and preserve it. That keeps me interested and excited most of all.

When you were a kid, did you expect to be a scientist or engineer? 
I was never one of those kids with their whole life planned out, but I’ve always loved building things, tinkering, and restoration projects. I learned analog circuitry through working on amplifiers and building my own musical effects pedals. During undergrad I was restoring an old analog piano, and at one point I bought some components from this Aussie dude. As it turned out his brother owned a custom vintage piano shop. We made friends and before long I ended up working for them as an engineer. Definitely not expected, but wouldn’t have it any different.

Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to study the ocean? 
I grew up on the coast in Virginia Beach and nearly everything in my life so far has been oriented around the ocean. I’m really into free diving, surfing, wind sports, (and now scuba thanks to ONR support for our upcoming experiment), the whole deal. The Atlantic will always have a special place in my heart. Southeast Virginia is the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay – a wild place from an oceanographic perspective. The conditions there are very different from San Diego, even the water is a different color. I guess I just couldn’t resist the call of that brownish green and murky Atlantic water…

What skills or abilities do you think are useful when going into oceanography?
A strong stomach is key for going out to sea! I’m very grateful I don’t get seasick. My hands on experience with electrical and mechanical systems has given me unique opportunities to do a lot of instrument development and fieldwork. I will say though, I definitely did myself a disservice by avoiding coding prior to grad school. Coding is a super useful skill. Now I view it for what it is – a high power calculator that can let you do whatever you want. Before though, any time spent behind a screen I avoided like the plague. Obviously, now as a grad student, a large percentage of my life is spent coding and writing. I’ve come to terms with that now, and troubleshooting a code is actually remarkably similar to troubleshooting an electrical system.

What does a typical workday look like for you? 
I would say that there is no typical workday, there's just so many different things I do, and it varies a lot between weeks and months. Right now, I’m doing a lot more writing since I’m trying to get some papers done. Inevitably some coding sneaks it’s way in there when I find new ways I want to present my results. With my experiment coming up this fall, spare thoughts often end up pondering my experimental design. The experiment will involve some scuba-deployed instrumentation, so we’ve been trying to get out on scuba weekly to maintain proficiency.

What drew you to Scripps? 
It was a bit of a lucky stumble actually. I tutored a lot between undergrad and grad school, tutoring is an awesome side-gig when you know math and physics. At the time, there was no upward mobility at the piano shop and I figured my academic skills were probably as sharp as they’d ever be, so I took the GRE. I applied to fluid dynamics programs at some UC’s and UCSD was the only one I got into (score!). From there, I got even luckier to end up working with Drew in the MOD group. I’m very grateful for our lab group and community, and feel super lucky to be a part of it.

Is there a particular scientist/person/thing that inspires you?
I think nature in general, and the ability to harness the forces of nature to one’s advantage is very inspiring. Pelicans are incredible creatures in this way. They use natural wind patterns to minimize flapping which is super cool on its own, but on top of that, they actually surf the updrafts that follow ocean swell! Super cool to watch. The first paper for my thesis was about this process, "wave-slope soaring," and it was a fun and challenging problem to solve! Boyan Slat's “The Ocean Cleanup” project also harnesses the forces of nature in a very clever way. They use the surface current patterns associated with ocean gyres to collect the waste of the pacific garbage patch, and more recently they are using natural effluent discharges to filter waste before it gets to the ocean in the first place – these examples of working with the flow are really cool. Nature is always going to win, so if you can be on the same team as nature that's how you’ll win too.

Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you? 
I am probably the most blood thirsty vegan out there! For a few years now, I’ve been on the hunter gatherer diet, aka vegan plus what you can catch yourself. Living in San Diego, the obvious place to turn is the ocean. Pacific pelagic fish like tuna, yellowtail, and mahi-mahi are extremely sustainable to hunt (for example, mahi mahi have a remarkably stable population and reach maturity in 4-5 months). These fish traverse the Southern California Bight in great numbers offshore in the summer months. The process of spearfishing has given me an enormous appreciation and respect for the food that goes on my table. To dive on a single breath, become a part of the ocean’s ecosystem, and assume the role of the apex predator that humans truly are, taps into a primal instinct that I’ve found few other activities will awaken. It’s beautiful, humbling, and empowering.

Written by Kerstin Bergentz

MOD Scientist Spotlight: Nicole Couto

What is your background and what are you working on at the moment? 
I did physics at UC Santa Barbara for my undergrad, but I sort of knew that theoretical physics wasn’t for me. I did a couple of internships in particle physics labs and I remember my classmates making fun of me when I’d take a paper outside to read. When I said I wanted to go to Antarctica one day, they thought that was the craziest thing they’ve ever heard! I ended up taking some earth science classes my senior year, including one on oceanography. I remember seeing pictures of people on boats and thinking “that’s their job – how do I get that job?”. After graduation I did a SEA semester and after that I knew that it was oceanography I wanted to do. However, during that trip I realized that there was so much more to oceanography than I realized, and I needed some more time to figure out which part of it I liked the most. Thus, I spent about a year working in a lab at UC Santa Cruz under a researcher who was part of the Long-Term Ecological Research Project at Palmer Station in Antarctica. I did a project looking at a at surface CO2 and O2 fluxes on the shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula. I later applied to graduate school with a bunch of different professors who were also part of that project, and I was lucky enough to get into Rutgers work with Oscar Schofield who led the phytoplankton component of the Palmer LTER. My work had a cool combo of biology and physics where we were looking at what physical factors in the ocean control phytoplankton distribution around Antarctica using gliders. My thesis was all about heat transport via eddies on the Antarctic shelf. When I was looking for postdocs focused on the polar regions I came across a great website that Jen and Matthew had set up for their ArcticMix project. I applied and here we are.

Today I still feel a pull towards the polar regions, but I’ve also sort of ended up in the turbulence world. I do a lot of work on bottom boundary layer dynamics and mixing, for example as part of the BLT [Boundary Layer Turbulence] and TLC [Turbulence in La Jolla Canyon] projects. I’ve also gotten funded for a project in Antarctica looking at turbulence, so it sort of feels like I’ve come full circle.

What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
Getting to go sea is definitely a huge draw for me. I like the break from all the screen time that is part of our normal day-to-day routine and getting to tinker with things. Plus, I really love the camaraderie that comes with hanging out with your coworkers 24/7. We typically end up getting a bit loopy and there are often a lot of fun pranks and inside jokes. I’m also excited by the thought that there are still so many things about the ocean that we don’t understand particularly well. Yet these things are super relevant and important for climate models and for us to understand what will happen to the ocean in a changing climate. That helps me stay motivated on the days I’m just staring at my screen all day struggling with some seemingly insignificant piece of analysis.

When you were a kid, did you expect to be a scientist? 
Yes, I think so. Both of my parents are scientists, biochemists, and it wasn’t until my junior year of college that I realized that I actually didn’t have to get a PhD and went through a phase of saying “I’m not getting a PhD”. But I think I always assumed I’d eventually end up in science somehow. I was very into astronomy for a while. Architecture was something else that called me for a while, in elementary school I was always drawing blueprints of houses. But math and science were always what attracted me the most.

Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to study the ocean?
I just love the ocean. When I was a kid, we spent a lot of time by the sea in Portugal where my dad is from. I just loved getting tossed around by the waves. We also spent time at Cape Cod near where my mom is from. It feels like a completely different ocean, on the Bayside it feels like you can walk out for a mile and still be only knee deep.

What skills or abilities do you think are useful when going into oceanography?
I think a lot about something that one of my advisors said to me when I was studying for my qualifying exam in grad school. I remember, we were passing each other in the hallway, and he was asking me how it was going, and I said with frustration: “It’s hard, I feel like I don't know anything!” To which he replied: “great, that means you're studying hard enough”. I think that there are a lot of times in this job where you get really stuck, and it is so easy to feel defeated, thinking you’re not cut out for it. But it's important to remember that you're not going to be an expert on everything. If you’re interested and curious enough to keep going, eventually you’ll figure something out. You’ll learn something and it is rewarding, but there will always be so much more that you’ll never know and that is part of what makes it exciting. Don’t be afraid to ask others for help and remember to every now and again check in on how far you’ve come. It’s sometimes easy to lose track of your own progress when you get stuck in your research. Being an oceanographer can also mean a lot of not-so-glamorous computer work on your own in between the thrills of fieldwork. That is why I think it is also important to practice reaching out and connect with your peers, that helps me stay motivated and feel inspired.

The last thing I’ll say is that a little bit of perseverance and discipline also helps a lot on those days you feel frustrated. “It is ok to suck, but it is not ok to skip” is something I heard once and keep reminding myself of. Some days you won’t feel like it, but you can’t just wait for inspiration to strike and for you to “feel ready”. You have to set yourself up for it by putting in the hours, that’s how you have a chance at actually finding flow in your coding or writing.

What does your typical workday look like? 
I sit down at my desk and wait for inspiration to come? Actually, on the days I’m on land I really try to stick to a routine where I use my mornings for writing and data wrangling because that’s when I’m at peak brain energy. I try to save afternoons for meetings or doing things in the lab. If I’m at sea it’s of course different, then you’re typically on for 12h manning the profiling winch or doing some other sampling, and then there’s data visualization etcetera. I enjoy that slightly different flow of your day when you’re at sea, it’s very stripped down to the essentials.

What drew you to Scripps? 
I think that when I was looking for postdocs, I was mostly looking for good people that I wanted to work with, and the location didn’t necessarily matter that much. But when I got here, I realized that I had lucked out because Scripps, and the MOD lab in particular, is not only full of so many great people, but there were also so many cool projects. I can do whatever suits my fancy really. I can tinker with instruments and learn from the engineers, and everyone is so fun and helpful. It’s a pretty amazing place to work.

Is there a particular scientist/person/thing that inspires you?
My dad has always really inspired me. He is always so curious and at the same time incredibly disciplined. He is a biochemist who is also really into astrophysics, he built a telescope when we were kids and like taught us all about stars, and whenever I go home, I'll find him watching YouTube videos about quantum physics or a myriad of other topics. But more importantly, he’s a very well-rounded person, for example, he plays the piano and swims almost every day. That balance between being very professional and good at what you do for work, and still have a lot of other interests and generally be a good human being, that is inspiring to me.

 Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you? 
I really love to sing. I'm still very nervous singing around other people but I sing and play the guitar. My dad played a lot of classical and jazz piano when I was growing up, so I’ve sort of always been surrounded by music. And if you ever were to see me driving in my car on the freeway belting songs, that's probably the truest version of me. Typically, it’s something by Sara Bareilles, lots of long notes that are fun to hold.

Written by Kerstin Bergentz

MOD Student Spotlight: Jake DeFilippis

What is your background and what are you working on at the moment? 
I went to UC Santa Cruz where I got my undergraduate degree in physics and computer science. My main interest was fluid dynamics which involves a lot of computer programming, hence the combination. After graduation, I got a job as a software engineer at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center working with control systems. Though particle physics wasn’t my main interest it was a pretty sweet gig where I got to tinker and learn a lot about both the science and engineering aspects. Eventually, I realized that I was more interested in ocean rather than particle physics, so I decided to go back to graduate school. Now I’m in my 5th year in the Applied Ocean Sciences program working with Bruce Cornuelle and Drew Lucas on underwater acoustics. My main research focus is ocean acoustic tomography which is all about how we can remotely sense ocean variables such as temperature or salinity, using sound energy. There is a long history of this research at Scripps dating back all the way to Walter Munk sending very powerful sound signals across the earth traveling through multiple ocean basins and inferring information about the ocean on a basin scale. I, however, look at smaller-scale oceanography, 10 meters or less, typically referred to as “fine structure”. The upper part of the ocean is very inhomogeneous due to its proximity to the surface. There are temperature and salinity sharp gradients due to the layering and mixing in the ocean. These features affect the sound speed of water which in turn affects the acoustic propagation in the ocean and give rise to various strange patterns in the received acoustic transmissions, thus my work involves a lot of signal processing and some acoustic modeling too.

What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
I get really excited about the discovery part of my work. Scripps is such a cool place where many people are truly able to got out to sea and collect data and discover something new. That allows us to really become the experts at what we do, especially at the graduate school level. No one else is looking at the problems to the degree that you’ll look at them, sometimes not even your advisors because they are busy with their own world, and as a graduate student doing most of the groundwork, you’re kind of on the very edge of it all, and that gives my work purpose.

When you were a kid, did you expect to be a scientist? 
No, I don't think so. I was thinking I'd be an inventor like Thomas Edison whom I really admired. I spent a lot of time swimming as a kid which can be rather mundane mentally, so I was always doing thought experiments about how to design things like submersibles or floating skateboards. Though I guess that is what I ended up doing, a bit of ping-pong between engineering and science where the lines definitely get blurred at times, it is kind of like being an inventor.

Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to study the ocean? 
As a kid, I lived 15 minutes away from the beach and I grew up a surfer, I did beach camp in the summer, and I was a junior lifeguard. I think I’ve always been enamored with the ocean. Sometimes I wonder if it was the right choice to have that be my career, you know how they say one should separate your career and your hobbies, but I also feel very privileged to be able to surf every day here. I work from home most days and it does drive me a little bit crazy at times. I definitely feel like getting in the ocean centers me, so I have to come into campus every once in a while.

What skills or abilities do you think are useful when going into oceanography? 
I think that a strong math and science background will serve you well, a fundamental understanding of physics helps a lot. But you also need to be a bit of a self-starter. Your advisors are a resource and there are a lot of helping hands around, butyou have to know how to reach out for help and use the available resources. For my path through graduate school, I’ve also had good use of more practical skills like knowing how to solder, and for example, I work on cars.  Those types of skills definitely have helped me fix things that break while at sea. A decent understanding of computer systems that I gathered in my previous degree and work has also been useful, but I don’t think it’s a requirement.

What does a typical workday look like for you? 
I'm pretty much a nine-to-five kind of guy. Sometimes it is longer and sometimes it’s shorter, but I like trying to stick to a schedule to know that I’m putting in the hours. That was actually the best advice I got as an undergraduate, someone told me to “treat school like a job”. It might be a strange job, but that is the best way to keep going. Graduate school is such a marathon and sometimes you’re deep in the weeds questioning if you’re even making any progress, but if you put in the hours, you can at least trust you’re doing the work that will eventually accumulate to a breakthrough of some sort.

What drew you to study at Scripps? 
Many things, beyond it having a reputation for being a great institution where I knew I’d find something fun to work with,it was also close to my support system and family which has actually been really important during my graduate school experience. And yeah, having the beach and the surf right outside your office door isn’t too bad either.  

Is there a particular scientist/person/something that inspires you?
I think I’d have to answer Ernest Shackleton. Ever since I read his book “South” I’ve been amazed at his dogged determination to survive and save his crew when their ship got stuck in the Antarctic sea ice for over a year. That refusal to give up despite extreme circumstances puts me put things in perspective when I feel like I’m having a hard time with my work. I guess they named their ship “Endurance” for a good reason…

 Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you? 
The lab I used to work for was a Slovenian-owned company, or rather they were contractors for the lab, but working for them I got to go live in Slovenia for 3 months. That was a really great time and it’s a very beautiful country. They have a tiny bit of coastline along the Mediterranean and lots of wonderful mountains. The language is very complex, but luckily most people speak some English and the people are very friendly.

Written by Kerstin Bergentz

MOD Engineer Spotlight: Isabella Franco

What is your background and what are you working on at the moment? 
I went to UCSD for my undergrad in mechanical engineering and graduated right before the pandemic. Thankfully I got a job right around that time too, but I had barely started when they sent us all home to work remotely “just for two weeks”, but we all know how that turned out. That job was in the oil and gas industry, which I was already hesitant about working in but had figured it was a good place to get some engineering experience, but it confirmed for me that it wasn’t really the field I wanted to be in for the rest of my life. It was also a huge company where you felt like a tiny cog in a big machine. Hence, after a little while I started thinking about what I’d rather do and thought back to a class I took at UCSD on marine instruments and sensor development with Todd Martz which I really enjoyed. I remember thinking “hmm, wonder if there are any engineering jobs where I get to do that” and looked at the Scripps job postings site and realized that yes, you can get to do cutting edge research and development, work on climate related questions, and travel, which checks all the boxes for me. I applied for a job and joined the MOD lab in early 2022.

Currently I’m the most junior engineer in the group, so I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can from the other engineers as I work on projects. I did a lot of mechanical work on the newest version of the T-PADS and right now I'm working on the level wind for the Beyster winch. I also do a lot of work on our various probes (temperature and microstructure). I am primarily a mechanical engineer, but I appreciate all the opportunities within the group to learn and practice skills from other engineering disciplines as well.

What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
The fieldwork is one of the things I find most exciting about my job. To actually be able to use the things that you've designed, tested and made and go out there and collect data to help better understand our oceans, that is very cool to me. I've only done a few cruises, but so far I am liking it a lot.

When you were a kid, did you expect to be an engineer? 
Both yes and no. There were a lot of things that I wanted to do when I was a kid. I specifically remember in second grade when asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I answered “paleontologist” (I had to learn how to spell “paleontologist”). I had watched a lot of History Channel and Discovery Channel and just thought that seemed like the coolest job. At some point I wanted to be an inventor, and then an artist, and briefly a marine biologist, but “engineer” didn’t really occur to me until I joined a robotics club in high school. I like engineering because it's a good amount of technical thinking, but also you get to be creative, especially in an R&D job which is kind of perfect. I also get to be around all of the science in this group and learn so many cool things!

Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to work with the ocean? 
I think I’ve always felt close to the ocean. I grew up a five minute walk from the beach in Santa Barbara. I did a lot of tide pooling and paddleboarding growing up, and volunteered at the aquarium that is on the pier back home. I remember the section on oceanographic instruments, you could take samples from the seafloor which was fun, and I guess that inspired me even if I didn’t know it then.

 What skills or abilities do you think are useful when going into oceanography or becoming a member of the engineering development team? 
I think creativity is a good thing to develop and nurture. But also, being comfortable asking good questions and making use of the tremendous amount of experience and knowledge that exists in the lab–people here are really smart and know so much. Having some persistence and not giving up is another one; being able to return to an engineering problem and think about it in a different way with new input is useful.

What does a typical workday look like for you? 
It's different day-to-day which is nice. Sometimes I'll be doing CAD the whole day, other days I will be machining or soldering something. Some days I just putter around the lab organizing things and lending a hand with whatever is happening that day. Then there are the fieldwork days where you're on deck profiling for 12 hours straight. The variety is fun! I like the design work a lot, but I really enjoy being able to tinker with physical things too. I once spent a summer working in a machine shop, and as much as I enjoyed that, I also think it's very nice to have some variety and be able to bring in the creative aspect. It is hard to come by though, that kind of job where you can combine both things, and I feel very lucky.

What drew you to Scripps? 
I think it was just the perfect set of circumstances. As I mentioned I took a class here and got a taste of what goes on at Scripps, plus I was looking to get out of the job I was in and wanted to stay in San Diego.

Is there a particular person/something that inspires you?
Picking just one person is hard! I feel like I could say that all of my coworkers in the lab inspire me because everyone is just super intelligent and creative. But I guess I’d have to say my dad too. He created his own business that manages energy controls for large buildings, like regulating lighting and HVAC, to make them more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. I think it’s amazing that he decided to do something that makes the world a little better and also can navigate running a business et cetera, and it has been inspiring to see.

Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you? 
Some people may already know this, but I'm very interested in native plants and ecology. I’m far from a professional biologist or botanist, but I’m still doing my best to learn about all the native plants that are around this part of the country. My mom works at a plant nursery so this interest of mine kind of came from her. I enjoy camping and going on hikes, and just being out in nature. Looking for and recognizing native plants is really exciting, especially when observing them throughout different seasons and learning how they function within an ecosystem. One of my favorite native plants is lupine—there’s so many different species within the genus, with some hyperlocal species that only appear in one county within California. They’re really pretty, with huge spikes of colorful flowers, often bright purple or blue (and they’re also a big hit with a bunch of different species of moths). There are even some that are currently blooming along the freeway exit on my commute home!

Written by Kerstin Bergentz