We are thrilled to share the wonderful news that the Ph.D. thesis defense of Filipe Pereira was successfully conducted on April 14th 2023.

Thesis Title: Physical-biological interactions in the Brazil Current meanders

Filipe is part of the University of São Paulo – UMass Dartmouth dual-degree program and displayed remarkable dedication throughout his research journey, leading to cutting-edge findings and enriching the scientific community. His tireless efforts and commitment to excellence have paved the way for new insights into the physics of the evolution of the quasi-stationary meanders of Brazil Current and its biological implications to local plankton community. Additionally, the dataset and analysis show that while the phytoplankton in mixed layer is influenced by the smaller processes at the edge of the large mesoscale eddy, at the pycnocline the plankton dynamics is dominated by the eddy pumping.

Stay updated on Filipe’s research by following their profile on ResearchGate!”

The defense was conducted under the guidance of a distinguished committee, whose expertise and guidance were instrumental in shaping and refining Filipe’s research. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the following committee members:

– Prof. Ilson Silveira (USP Advisor)
– Prof. Amit Tandon (UMD Advisor)
– Prof. Áurea Ciotti (USP)
– Prof. Geoffrey Cowles (UMD)
– Prof. Peter Franks (UCSD)

The now Dr. Filipe Pereira has been awarded the highly prestigious University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (PPFP), recognizing his outstanding accomplishments and commitment to fostering a more diverse and equitable academic community. This esteemed program, with an impressive track record of success, has seen over 100 former fellows receive faculty appointments at various UC campuses, contributing to the ongoing diversification of the academic community within the University of California. He is going to work with Jen MacKinnon and Drew Lucas on understanding the role of the biology in the ocean optics during harmful algal blooms. Congratulations to Filipe on this remarkable and well-deserved honor!

Patrick was recently featured in the Feature stories section of UMassD. Find more about his non-tradiational student life and his research in the article here.

Congratulations Patrick!

Tandon lab was represented by two undergraduate students in the 27^th annual Sigma Xi research exhibit held at Claire T. Carney Library, UMass Dartmouth in April 2023.

Nicholas Monroe presented a poster on “Biases in the modeled air-sea interaction during 2017-18 in the Arabian Sea”.  On the other hand, Viktoriya Balabanova presented about “Validating Geostrophic Balances in the North Atlantic Ocean”.  These posters were received well and accoladed by the judges and experts present there.

Congratulations Nicholas and Viktoriya!

(From L-R) Prof. Tandon, Viktoriya and Sid with Viktoriya’s poster

(From L-R) Nicholas, Sid and Prof. Tandon with Nicholas’ poster

Inter-campus Marine Science (IMS) program at University of Massachusetts organized their annual symposium at UMass Dartmouth in March 2023. Researchers from the five UMass campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell and Worcester) gather to discuss their work in marine sciences.

Sid presenting his work on DWLs

Sid Kerhalkar, Patrick Pasteris and Nicholas Monroe presented posters at this event and their posters can be found here.

Prof. Amit Tandon and PhD candidates, Iury Simoes-Sousa and Siddhant (Sid) Kerhalkar, recently participated in the CLIVAR workshop on Mesoscale and Frontal-scale air-sea interaction in Boulder, Colorado between March 06-08, 2023. The goal of this workshop was to make use of the progress in air-sea interaction to identify gaps in understanding, facilitating, and improving comparison of observations and modeling, and to build collaborations to respond to community needs. This workshop was funded by US CLIVAR, NASA, NSF, NOAA and DoE.

In addition to participating in discussions, Iury and Sid were presenting posters on their respective research. Iury presented a poster on “Atmospheric Cold Pools in the Bay of Bengal”  while Sid’s poster was titled “Observing and Modeling the variability of DWLs during the summer Monsoon in the Northern Indian Ocean“.  Prof. Tandon also volunteered to participate as a discussion leader while Iury and Sid volunteered as note-takers for discussions.

Sid and Prof. Tandon with Sid’s poster

Iury and Prof Tandon with Iury’s poster

Iury and Sid are grateful for the financial support by the workshop organizers (and sponsors) to attend this workshop while Sid was additionally funded by the Graduate Student Senate (GSS), UMassD travel support.

We are happy to announce the successful thesis defense of Alan Andonian, who recently completed his Master of Science (MS) degree in the Engineering and Applied Science program. This significant milestone marks the culmination of Alan’s research and academic journey.

Thesis Title: Vortex Shedding in Two-Dimensional Flow Around a Two-Cylinder Configuration

Alan presented an solid thesis defense, showcasing his understanding of the physics and engineering of vortex shedding in a multi-cylinder configuration, which has important implications for structural fatigue and acoustic interference in ocean moorings.

Thesis Defense Committee:

– Prof. Amit Tandon (Advisor / UMD)
– Prof. Banafsheh Seyedaghazadeh (UMD)
– Prof. Christian Buckingham (UMD)
– Prof. John Buck (UMD)

As Alan embarks on his new role as a Structural Simulations Test Engineer at Simulia Dassault Systems in Johnston, Rhode Island, we have no doubt that his skills and expertise will contribute to innovative advancements in the field.

Adriano Giangiardi successfully defended his undergraduate honors thesis on December 14, 2022. With the thesis titled “The Interannual Variability of the Brazil Current System”,  Adriano was advised by Prof. Ilson Silveira (University of São Paulo, Brazil), MSc. Leilane Passos (University of Bergen, Norway) and Prof Amit Tandon (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth). In this work, Adriano used the outputs of a global reanalysis product to compute the volume transport of the western boundary currents off Brazil over 27 years.  His analysis shows that while the Brazil Current (BC) is not changing at 22°S, it is surprisingly strengthening at 34°S. Furthermore, the BC showed a moderate correlation with El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Part of this thesis was developed when Adriano visited us in Tandon lab at UMass Dartmouth during Spring 2022. The impact of Adriano’s work can be seen through the honorable mention for Exact and Earth Sciences at the undergraduate symposium of the University of São Paulo in Brazil and the best poster award in physical oceanography session at the Intercampus Marine Science (IMS) symposium held at UMass Dartmouth in March 2022.

Congratulations Adriano!

Adriano with his title slide after his successful defense.

Research Professor Christian E. Buckingham (PI) and Professor Amit Tandon (Co-investigator) have been awarded $480,694 for the project, “INTeRnal waves In angular momeNtum StratifICation (INTRINSIC),” by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

An important discovery in the oceanography community has been the realization that centripetal accelerations, or curvature, can modify the stability of fluid parcels within fronts.  Curvature can be shown to locally modify the frequency, dispersion, and hence propagation of internal waves (IWs). Owing to where such waves lose energy or break, this can have a significant impact on energy, buoyancy, and tracer fluxes between the ocean and atmosphere. INTRINSIC aims to study this topic by systematically examining a simplified model of a curved front, together with numerical simulations of the same, in order to better understand the dispersion, propagation, and fate of IWs within the ocean. 

More on the project here.

Congratulations Profs. Buckingham and Tandon!

A few members of the Tandon Lab attended the recently concluded FilaChange conference which was conducted as a precursor to the upcoming SWOT mission. This conference was held at four different locations (Providence, Paris, Hobart and Qingdao), with the members attending the Providence session. Iury Simoes-Sousa gave a talk on his work on how the mixed layer eddies can supply nutrients and therefore facilitate spring time blooms. Filipe Pereira presented a talk on his work on the quasi-stationary meander and its ecological implications in the western South Atlantic. Sid Kerhalkar presented a poster on the Diurnal Warm Layer dynamics in the Bay of Bengal.

Dr. Pietri was also attending the conference.

Iury presenting his work at Filachange

Filipe presenting his work at Filachange

Few members of the Tandon Lab attended the workshop on “Prediction and Variability of Air-Sea Interactions: the South Asian Monsoon”  which was held at Institute for Computational & Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM), Brown University, Providence. Prof Tandon was a co-organizer of that workshop while Sid Kerhalkar and Dr. Suraj Singh attended the workshop.