My journey towards Physical Oceanography

Curiosity has always driven my choices, so I guess science was a natural path for me. For some aleatory events in my life, I ended up verging my curiosity into the ocean and its dynamics. My motivation is to learn how the ocean moves and why.

I trained as a physical oceanographer (master and PhD) at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). I’m more than thankful for the public and high-quality education this intitution provided me with. My research interest is mostly continental shelf dynamics and shelf - open ocean interactions in a wide spectrum of time scales, from days to decades.

My research so far has focused on Continental Shelf Dynamics, the analysis of ocean currents and physical properties, with the aim to understand the forcing of the variability observed:

• On the Argentine basin, within the Southwestern Atlantic during my PhD at the University of Buenos Aires (CIMA).
• On the Chukchi Sea, within the Pacific Arctic during my postdoc at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

I had the unique opportunity to help collect the data I analyzed during my PhD. I participated in 3 cruises where we deployed and recovered moorings along different sections of the Argentine Continental Shelf. This experience was enlightening, not only because of the amazing ocean views, but also because I learned so much about the “science chain”: preparing the instruments, deploying and recovering them, carrying out data quality controls, analyzing the amazing data gathered, having long discussions about so many interesting features observed and publishing the results to share with the rest of the scientific community.

In the near future I hope to learn about the rest of the chain: transforming an idea into a project and being able to get funding to test that idea.

I enjoy working in interdisciplinary groups. Currently, I’m interacting with the biology group at WHOI that specializes in the study of harmful algal blooms in the Pacific Arctic. We are trying to merge the knowledge of the lifecycle of these toxic phytoplankton species with the physical properties and circulation that modulate these blooms initiation and spread.

Research Interests

• Circulation Variability and Forcing
• Continental Shelf Dynamics
• Large-scale Ocean Circulation
• In-situ Measurements
• Satellite Altimetry
• Biophysical Interactions