One of the single most important aspects of getting admitted to the OEAS degree and to be successful within the program is to identify and communicate with one or more possible advisors whose research interests align with your own. It is in your best interest as an applicant to discuss with potential advisors their areas of expertise, ongoing and future research projects, expectations of graduate students, your educational and career goals, your research interests, and why you want to be a part of the OEAS program and their respective research programs. Since nearly all of our graduate students are supported financially via graduate research assistantships, graduate teaching assistantships, or fellowships, finding the best fit of an advisor who is accepting new students, and has possible support can take some time. It may take multiple attempts to connect with potential advisors, but if you are having problems reaching someone after a few tries please feel free to contact the Interim Program Director (Adam Kent) who may be able to facilitate a connection or direct you to other potential advisors. See Research Opportunities for Incoming OEAS Graduate Students for some active projects we on which we are seeking graduate student involvement, however, this is not exhaustive and should not discourage you from seeking out others whose interests more closely align with your own.

Other helpful tips:

  • Reading a paper or two of the faculty member you are reaching out to will allow you to discuss in more depth their research and your interests (and impress the faculty with your initiative).
  • Following up with current and former graduate students will provide some additional insight to advising styles and expectations.
  • Be persistent (and patient), if at first you do not get a response to your email, we juggle a lot of emails daily, and sometimes need an extra reminder.
  • Unfortunately, sometimes the right fit may exist, without funding or resources. The graduate program is very competitive, and we cannot offer admittance to all the qualified applicants we receive.
  • You are interviewing us as much as we are you, having well prepared questions and specific items to discuss will allow for the most productive discussions.

Below are all of our graduate faculty, organized by their respective discipline groups (which are organization structures of the college). The five concentrations within OEAS are managed by the three discipline groups, and many faculty advise students across different concentrations. So please start with finding the correct advisor and then discussing with them what concentration may be best suited for your goals.

  • Lorenzo Ciannelli, Professor and Program Director
    Fisheries oceanography, spatial ecology, fish early life stages, statistical analysis of catch and survey data
  • Kim Bernard, Associate Professor
    Polar zooplankton ecology
  • Rene Boiteau, Assistant Professor
    Organic biogeochemistry, mass, spectrometry, trace metal cycling
  • Ed Brook, Distinguished Professor of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
    Paleoclimatology, geochemistry, ice core trace gas records, cosmogenic isotopes, extraterrestrial dust
  • Kristen Buck, Associate Professor
    Biogeochemical cycling of trace metals in marine ecosystems
  • Rick Colwell, Professor
    Microbial ecology, subsurface microbiology, geomicrobiology
  • Byron Crump, Professor
    Aquatic microbial ecology in marine, estuarine and freshwater ecosystems
  • Jennifer Fehrenbacher, Assistant Professor
    Tracer oceanography
  • Miguel Goñi, Professor
    Cycling of natural organic matter in the earth's surface, mainly in aquatic environments
  • Burke Hales, Professor
    Coastal ocean carbon cycles, ocean acidification, measurement and experimental manipulation technology
  • Laurie Juranek, Associate Professor
    Dissolved gases, isotope biogeochemistry, marine biological pump, and marine carbon cycle
  • Maria Kavanaugh, Assistant Professor
    Seascape ecology, remote sensing, global change
  • Astrid Leitner, Assistant Professor
    The impacts of abrupt and complex bathymetry across scales on the ecology and behavior of marine animals
  • Ricardo Letelier, Professor
    Marine pelagic microorganisms, biogeochemical cycles, nitrogen fixation, photosynthesis
  • Roberta Marinelli, Professor
    Ecology and biogeochemistry of the seafloor
  • Alan Mix, Distinguished Professor of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
    Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, isotope geochemistry, micropaleontology
  • Clare Reimers, Distinguished Professor of Ocean Ecology and Biogeochemistry
    Benthic biogeochemistry; chemical sensor development; redox conditions in natural waters and sediments, carbonate chemistry
  • Andreas Schmittner, Professor
    Climate change, ocean biogeochemical cycles, interactions in the climate system, paleoclimate, ocean circulation
  • Alyssa Shiel, Associate Professor
    Heavy stable isotope geochemistry; geochemical tracer development; environmental fate of metals/metalloids
  • Yvette Spitz, Professor
    The main pathways in marine ecosystems, coupled physical-biological models
  • Andrew Thurber, Associate Professor
    Microbe-metazoan Interactions, deep-sea and polar ecology, food web dynamics, deep-sea habitats, annelid ecology
  • George Waldbusser, Professor and Program Head for OEAS
    Ocean acidification effects on bivalves, benthic ecology and sediment biogeochemistry, tidal flat ecology
  • James Watson, Assocaite Professor
    Complex adaptive systems, environmental science, social-ecological systems, quantitative analyses, seascape ecology, marine spatial planning, coastal vulnerability
  • Jack Barth, Professor, Executive Director of the Marine Studies Initiative
    Coastal ocean dynamics, coastal marine ecosystems, hypoxia, inner continental shelf dynamics
  • Jesse Cusack, Assistant Professor
    Small to mesoscale ocean processes such as turbulence, flows over topography, internal waves and eddies
  • Simon de Szoeke, Professor
    Atmosphere-ocean interaction, stratiform clouds, tropical meteorology
  • Ed Dever, Professor
    Cross-shelf exchange processes, analysis and prediction of Lagrangian transport, air-sea interaction
  • Melanie Fewings, Associate Professor
    Observational coastal physical oceanography and meteorology
  • Jonathan Fram, Associate Professor (Senior Research)
    Ocean Observatories Initiative
  • Jessica Garwood, Assistant Professor
    Small-scale physical-biological interactions in the ocean, especially implications for transport of plankton or sediment
  • Jenny Hutchings, Associate Professor
    Sea ice dynamics
  • Andrea Jenny, Associate Professor
    Atmospheric/climate science with a focus on understanding and modeling tropical convection and clouds
  • Michael Kosro, Professor
    Coastal oceanography, shelf/deep-sea exchange processes, remote sensing, ocean acoustics, ocean circulation
  • Jim Lerczak, Professor
    Coastal physical oceanography
  • Ricardo Matano, Professor
    Large-scale ocean circulation, the dynamics of western boundary currents, ocean modeling, geophysical fluid dynamics. the circulation in the Southern Ocean
  • Jonathan Nash, Professor
    Physics of turbulence and ocean mixing
  • Larry O'Neill, Associate Professor
    Air-sea interactions, satellite meteorology and oceanography, atmospheric boundary layer and ocean mixed layer dynamics
  • Tuba Özkan-Haller, Professor, Associate Vice President for Research Administration & Development
    Near-shore circulation modeling, data assimilation in the near-shore region, time-series analysis techniques
  • Brodie Pearson, Assistant Professor
    Physics of mixing processes (i.e. turbulence) in the ocean
  • Roger Samelson, Professor
    Fluid dynamics and thermodynamics of the ocean and atmosphere, coastal and arctic meteorology, nonlinear dynamics of geophysical fluids
  • Andreas Schmittner, Professor
    Climate change, ocean biogeochemical cycles, interactions in the climate system, paleoclimate, ocean circulation
  • Kipp Shearman, Professor
    Physical processes in coastal ocean, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)
  • Karen Shell, Associate Professor
    Climate dynamics, general circulation of the atmosphere, climate modeling
  • Emily Shroyer, Associate Professor
    Small-scale ocean dynamics, such as turbulent mixing, internal gravity waves, and upper ocean processes
  • Nick Siler, Assistant Professor
    Mountain precipitation and hydrology, global hydrologic cycle, regional climate change and variability
  • Eric Skyllingstad, Professor
    Upper ocean turbulence, mesoscale coastal internal waves, ocean-atmosphere coupling
  • William Smyth, Professor
    Turbulence in geophysical flows, thermohaline processes, nonlinear waves
  • Yvette Spitz, Professor
    The main pathways in marine ecosystems, coupled physical-biological models
  • Justin Wettstein, Associate Professor
    Large-scale / long-term climate and atmospheric dynamics, climate variability and change, climate impacts and responses in natural and human-managed systems
  • Greg Wilson, Associate Professor
    hysics of the nearshore coastal ocean including waves, currents, and sediment transport
  • Ed Brook, Distinguished Professor of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
    Paleoclimatology, geochemistry, ice core trace gas records, cosmogenic isotopes, extraterrestrial dust
  • Christo Buizert, Assistant Professor
    Paleoclimate, ice cores, abrupt climate change, firn processes
  • Peter Clark, University Distinguished Professor of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
    Glaciers and ice sheets, sea level change, paleoclimatology and abrupt climate change
  • JC Creveling, Associate Professor
    Geology, Earth history, sedimentology, stratigraphy, sea-level change
  • Shan de Silva, Professor
    Volcanology, Igneous Petrology, Aeolian geomorphology
  • Emily Eidam, Assistant Professor
    Sediment transport processes and rates in fluvial, coastal, and continental shelf systems, as well as event-scale to centennial-scale sediment deposition
  • Adam Kent, Professor and Associate Dean
    High temperature geochemistry, igneous petrology, In-situ elemental and isotopic analysis
  • Anthony Koppers, Professor
    Hotspots and their associated volcanic chains, plate tectonic theory, mantle geodynamics
  • Stephen Lancaster, Associate Professor
    Fluvial geomorphology, hydrology
  • Alan Mix, Distinguished Professor of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
    Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, isotope geochemistry, micropaleontology
  • Tuba Özkan-Haller, Professor and Dean
    Near-shore circulation modeling, data assimilation in the near-shore region, time-series analysis techniques
  • Erin Pettit, Professor
    Glacier and ice sheet dynamics, ice/ocean interactions, ice rheology and deformation, ice-core climate history
  • Peter Ruggiero, Professor
    Coastal geomorphology, coastal hazards, nearshore processes
  • Adam Schultz, Professor
    The structure, fluid distribution, composition, temperature and state of the Earth's interior from the near-surface scale to the deep mantle.
  • Pieter-Ewald Share , Assistant Professor
    Nature of structure and strain along major faults making up the southern California plate boundary
  • Alyssa Shiel, Associate Professor
    Heavy stable isotope geochemistry; geochemical tracer development; environmental fate of metals/metalloids
  • Frank Sousa, Assistant Professor
    Low-temperature thermochronology, field geology, and applications of remote sensing date to geology mapping
  • Joe Stoner, Professor
    Sediments magnetism, paleomagnetism, environmental magnetism, geomagnetism, sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleoclimatology.
  • Frank Tepley, Professor
    Igneous petrology, isotope geochemistry, electron probe microscopy
  • Pam Sullivan, Associate Professor
    Ecohydrology; interactions of climate, vegetation and geology
  • Mo Walczak, Assistant Professor
    Application of foraminiferal stable isotopes in marine sediments for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and sediment depositional histories
  • Greg Wilson, Assistant Professor
    Physics of the nearshore coastal ocean including waves, currents, and sediment transport.
  • Michael Harte, Professor and Associate Dean
    Marine geography, natural resource management and planning
  • James Watson, Associate Professor
    Complex adaptive systems, environmental science, social-ecological systems, quantitative analyses, seascape ecology, marine spatial planning, coastal vulnerability

Go back to the Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences Graduate Program page.