About

Research Interests

• Phytoplankton
• Mesoscale eddies
• Lagrangian Analysis
• Satellite Remote Sensing
• Ecosystem-Circulation Coupled Modeling
• Biogeography

Details on my specific projects can be found on the Research page.



Lagrangian trajectories of waters around the Hawaiian Islands, calculated from satellite-estimated ocean current velocities.

Background

I hold a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program (2025) and a B.A. in Mathematics with Minors in Physics and Business from Temple University (2018). My research career began in Dr. Rob Kulthinal's Evolutionary Genetics and Biological Informatics lab at Temple University where I learned to code in Python while studying genetic variation in the Drosophila lineage (fruit flies) and the evolution of duplicate genes and their functions. I then worked on a project examining phytoplankton composition in the Santa Barbara Channel and the community response to marine heatwaves with ocean color remote sensing algorithms through the NASA Student Airborne Research Project (SARP). Additionally, I led a NASA DEVELOP remote sensing study investigating the ocean conditions driving the northward migration of the grunion, a fish endemic to Southern California. These early projects sparked my interest in oceanography and ultimately inspired me to pursue a Ph.D. in the field. I am a staunch supporter of open science practices, and a fan of Python and Jupyter Notebooks. You can find my code on GitHub. My research publications are open-access and generated datasets are publicly available.

Contact

Email: aejk@mit.alum.edu



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