Teaching
My teaching goals are to introduce and teach students about physical processe in earth
sciences. I try to reach both science students and non-science students with my teaching because
improved understanding will help everyone make improved choices in their lives. The important
skills that I want my students to gain include the ability to think critically and
to recognize the fundamental questions of any environmental or scientific problem. Once the
individual pieces of a problem are identified, solutions are much easier to find.
I ask my students to think critically as they develop questions and collect data to answer
them. At all levels,
learners learn best when they try to answer questions. The trick as a teacher is to find questions that both interest
the students and are filled with teacheable material.
Research
I am interested in aspects of mixing and transport in environmental boundary layers in
oceans, lakes, rivers, and estuaries. Coastal and boundary layer processes connect the oceans
to the land and the atmosphere and play fundamental roles in the dynamics of the ocean as well
as its communication with its surroundings.
My research focuses on turbulence dynamics in the coastal and surface ocean. Many turbulent
motions occur at scales too small to resolve in regional numerical models, but they play
important roles in mixing and dispersion of many things, including momentum, heat, nutrients,
and pollutants, as well as gas exchange with the atmosphere.
In the ocean surface boundary layer, turbulence is caused by shear and convective instabilities
and by processes associated with surface gravity waves--wave breaking and Langmuir circulation.
My Ph. D. research studied these processes observationally, and my postdoctoral work examines
the mixing processes that affect how river water mixes with salt water when it enters the ocean.
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