en: What’s the most exciting thing about your work?
RW: The most exciting part of my work is visualizing data. I like the way that oceanographers plot their data. I think a beautiful visualization of research results can not only catch the attention of audiences through an aesthetic sense but also convey the scientific ideas behind it effectively. Through novel data visualization tools, I hope one day to make the plots like Perpetual Ocean, and communicate my research in an attractive and understandable way.
en: Are there any role models or mentors who have helped you along the way?
RW: There are many people who helped me along the way in research. I was lucky enough to meet my advisors Bia Villas Boas and Sarah Gille. As a freshman, I was exposed to physical oceanography for the first time during Sarah’s lectures. My first research project was set from a conversation after class, where Sarah pointed out to me the phenomena of expansion fan winds along the California coast. Expansion fan winds events are the strong sea-surface wind events along the California coast that happen in spring and summer.
I came to research without any programming background, and it’s Bia who taught me how to use Python from scratch. I can remember countless times when we sat together to debug the codes line by line. Both Bia and Sarah helped me a lot in planning an approach, providing resources, and advising my work. It’s hard to imagine what I would do without their support. I also want to thank Rick Salmon, Ian Eisenman, and Janet Becker from whom I learned how to use math and physics to describe the motion of seawater in the classes of waves and geophysical fluid dynamics, which created a solid foundation to address the research problems.
en: What are some of the challenges you face as an undergraduate student?
RW: I think one of the greatest challenges for undergraduates is time management –specifically, how to balance the time between coursework and research. Building the toolbox for research requires a lot of effort. I struggled a lot on how to spare enough time for research in the middle of lectures, homework, and exams. I am still learning how to use my time more efficiently!
en: What are your future plans?
RW: I’ll go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program for graduate studies in physical oceanography. After graduate school, I wish to continue conducting research in physical oceanography as an academic professor or researcher. I hope to return to Scripps in the future.
– Arielle Amante
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