About Me
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and am a current graduate student in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington.Much of my research is done using climate models to better understand some of the fundamental ways that our atmosphere works.
Outside of research you'll often find me outside hiking, backpacking, and trail running throughout the Pacific Northwest.
The land I live and work on is the past, present, and future lands of the Coast Salish and Duwamish peoples. This land was forcibly ceded to the U.S. government in the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott, and the tribes have never been justly compensated. Learn more at realrentduwamish.org and find out whose land you live and work on at native-land.ca .
Why Atmospheric Science?
From a young age I've been fascinated by the weather and climate that surrounds us. I majored in physics as an undergraduate and realized how fundamental physics is to our understanding of earth. Graduate school has been a fantastic opportunity for me to combine my interest in our atmosphere with my passion for using math and physics to better understand the world.
Research
Radiative and dynamic controls on atmospheric heat transport
I use a variety of idealized climate models to separate and better understand how dynamics and radiation individually control different aspects of atmospheric heat transport. I focus on the role of planetary rotation rate and radiative temperature tendency and find each is important for different aspects of heat transport. Full manuscript submitted to Journal of Climate.
Timescales of Atmospheric Heat Transport
On seasonal and longer time scales, atmospheric heat transport generally varies smoothly with latitude. However, on shorter time scales we know that individual storms do not create atmospheric heat transport that varies smoothly with latitude. I am currently working on better understanding the connections between these different time scales of atmospheric heat transport.
Outreach
I'm passionate about increasing understanding of climate change and our earth system with the general public. From elementary students to adults, all of us can benefit from being climate change literate as this topic becomes more and more prevalent in our lives.Increasing Climate Literacy
Having a basic understanding of climate change is becoming increasingly important as climate is talked about more often in popular media. I hope to help people become more informed about the state of climate science to help them better understand climate news when they see it. Check out some of the great outreach work we're doing within the Atmospheric Sciences Department and the Program on Climate Change.
ACORN Projects
I am a co-founder of the Actionable Community-Oriented Research eNgagement (ACORN) program that facilitates project-based collaboration between UW graduate students and community organizations. We are currently looking to develop more partnerships to help meet community priorities related to climate change—please contact us at pccacorn@uw.edu if interested!