Introduction

I am a planetary climate dynamicist in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Yale University. My focus is the mathematical study of how liquids and gases move across planetary bodies (including Earth). This field, called geophysical fluid dynamics, is used to explain the different directions of the prevailing winds on Earth's surface, the different temperatures of the gulf stream and California currents, and the depletion of ozone above Earth's southern pole.

My primary research investigates the dynamics of the middle atmosphere (stratosphere and mesosphere) of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Like Earth, Titan has an atmosphere composed mostly of molecular nitrogen, though unlike Earth the second most abundant molecule is methane. The chemistry that results from the interactions between these two molecules leads to a complex world with diverse surface geomorphological features like dunes, riverbeds, and lakes, as well as a range of weather patterns that mirror the weather on Earth. I use a range of tools, from new observations from the world's leading telescopes and space observatories to state-of-the-art computational circulation models to examine the underlying physical mechanisms that govern this enigmatic world. Read more about my research interests (and how you can get involved!) on my research page.