Born and raised on the East Coast, I have had the luxury of spending time patrolling the shoreline of the Gulf of Maine for the past two decades. As a member of a coastal Maine community, it was never a question that I wanted to dedicate my career to marine research, working to ensure society sustains the integrity and stability of our global oceans. After acquiring diverse experience within the realm of oceanography, I have continuously centered my work around a single focal point: climate change is beginning to alter ecosystems to a point where resources are becoming severely impacted. Unfortunately, in the wake of today’s climate crisis it is all too easy to turn a blind eye to the existential threat our planet faces. As climate change introduces changes at a timescale unlike any before, the need for careful assessment of the ocean’s integrity and stability only increases. Throughout my undergraduate education I conducted a project studying the rapid warming of the Gulf of Maine sea surface temperatures and its effect on biological productivity. This motivated a modeling project to study similar concepts on a global scale. Both experiences led to my current avenue of research as a graduate student studying nutrient cycling within subtropical regions of the global ocean. One of my top priorities as a young researcher is to emphasize the importance of communicating science with the general public in an effective way so that our global community can move forward together to tackle the crisis our environment is facing.
