Senior Scientist

Prof. Tandon uses his knowledge of Fluid Mechanics and Physical Oceanography to address a myriad of problems involving mixing processes in the upper ocean. He uses analytical and numerical modeling to address the importance of mixing and mixed layer processes for ocean circulation and climate. His research interests span from small- scale turbulence and oceanic mixed- layer processes, to sub-mesoscale frontal gradients and mesoscale eddies, and their role in setting up the large scale balances in the ocean.

Current Members

Post-Doc at UMass Dartmouth (School of Marine Sciences and Technology). Dr. Ramana Patibandla did his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Applied Mechanics Department. His PhD research involved understanding stratified shear flows with an emphasis on understanding the resonant interactions of internal gravity waves and wind generated water waves. Additionally, he also worked on the flow field generated by particulate matter in the ocean. Currently, he is working on the transport of internal gravity waves in submesoscale curved fronts.

Ph.D. Candidate at UMass Dartmouth (School of Marine Sciences and Technology).  Mechanical Engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Sid is currently working on unraveling the physics behind the Diurnal Warm Layers as well as understanding submesoscale processes in the Indian Ocean. He is particularly interested in air-sea interaction and (sub)mesoscale ocean processes. More about him can be found in the UMassD feature story as well as the UMassD Graduate Student spotlight.

Ph.D. Student at UMass Dartmouth (Engineering and Applied Science). He completed an undergraduate degree from Jadavpur University, Kolkata in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently involved in studying heat fluxes and associated biases in the reanalysis products in the Northern Indian Ocean. He is also interested in the surface ocean dynamics and Ocean-Atmosphere interaction.

Ph.D. student in the Engineering and Applied Sciences Department at UMass Dartmouth. Parth finished his undergraduate education in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay. He has previously worked on magnetohydrodynamic simulations of astrophysical plasmas and is now looking at horizontal and vertical mixing in mesoscale eddies as a source of oxygen in the Eastern Pacific OMZ.

Current research associate member of the Upper Ocean’s Research lab and enrolled in the accelerated BS/MS program in Mechanical Engineering at UMassD with a thesis focused on developing and deploying the second generation of Aurelia floats. Aurelia v2 is an ultra-lightweight variable buoyancy device that uses environmental fluids to change density in order to achieve depth and is capable of sonobuoy style deployment. More about him can be found in the UMassD feature story.

Ersen’S is a Mechanical Engineering master student enrolled in the BS/MS program at UMassD. His undergraduate research is focused on developing an ocean particle tracking numerical model and using computing tools to obtain high-resolution satellite imagery of sea surface temperature and salinity in the Bay of Bengal. More about him can be found in the UMassD feature story.

Former Local Research Faculty Collaborators

Dr. Buckingham is interested in the physics of the oceans. His primary area of research pertains to upper ocean turbulence and how dynamics at small horizontal scales in the ocean (1-10 km) can modify energy, buoyancy, and tracer exchanges between the ocean and atmosphere. This research is accomplished through a careful analysis of observations, models, and theories of the ocean. He joined UMass Dartmouth in January 2022.

Dr. Pietri specializes in Meso and submesoscale physical oceanography, autonomous high-resolution ocean observation, marine heatwaves. She joined UMass Dartmouth in May 2022.

Group Alumni

Foram was a former Research Assistant at School for Marine Science and Technology, UMass Dartmouth. She completed her Integrated Master’s in Physics from NIT Surat. Her RA work centered on computing mesoscale eddy instabilities, particularly those involving fronts and curvature in the ocean. She is currently pursuing RA with Prof Hangjian Ling in Mech Engg.

Ph.D. Candidate at UMass Dartmouth (Engineering and Applied Science).  He worked on the NISKINe project studying the interaction of Near-Inertial waves with baroclinic eddy fields. He is also interested in biophysical processes, working with Prof. Amala Mahadevan (WHOI) investigating the role of the eddy-driven submesoscale restratification on phytoplankton blooms. He is currently a post-doc investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. More about him can be found in the UMassD feature story.

Dr. Suraj Singh did his Ph.D. at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in aerospace engineering. Working on understanding the stability of idealized baroclinic and barotropic vortices, he studied the effects of stable stratification and diffusion along with curvature for his PhD. He worked on the stability of mesoscale and submesoscale oceanic features like vortices and fronts during his post-doc here. He is currently a postdoc in Stockholm University.

Ph.D. Student at UMassD – University of São Paulo dual-degree program. Filipe worked on the dynamics of a coastal upwelling front off SE Brazil in a submesoscale sense, its interaction with the meanders of the Brazil Current, and the biological effects of these phenomena on the planktonic dynamics of the region. He will begin as a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at Scripps Institution of Oceanography soon.

Nicholas was a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student at UMassD who worked on his APEX thesis. His thesis focused on comparing the meteorological quantities and bulk fluxes between moorings and popular reanalysis products like ERA-5 and MERRA-2 in the Arabian Sea.

Vicky was a physics undergraduate student at UMassD who worked at Tandon lab as a part of UMassD-WHOI Blue Economy Internship. Co-advised with Dr J.Thomas Farrar from WHOI, Vicky’s thesis focused on understanding the geostrophic balance and testing the same for the North Atlantic Ocean. More about her can be found in the UMassD feature story.

Alan was a Mechanical Engineering masters student at UMass Dartmouth enrolled in the BS/MS program. He worked on developing a numerical model of a geostrophic flow over a topographic bump for his BS thesis and on Vortex shedding problem for a two dimensional multi cylinder configuration for his MS thesis. Alan is currently a Quality Engineering Specialist at Dassault Systèmes.

Caique pursued his Master’s in Physical Oceanography at Oceanographic Institute of University of São Paulo (IOUSP). He was advised by Prof Ilson and Prof Tandon. By using remote sensing data, hydrographic data and ocean modelling, his work focused on the investigation of ocean currents, their variability and the physical-biological interactions associated. He also worked on the description of submesoscale dynamics associated with Brazil Current meanders. He is currently a PhD student in Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Dr. Giunta was a postdoc investigator here and worked with Prof Amit Tandon on modeling Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZs) in the Tropical Pacific and understand the dynamics there. She was previously a PhD scholar at NUI Galway with Prof Brian Ward. Dr. Giunta is now a Product Analyst for Mercator Ocean International.

Adriano was an undergraduate student at the Oceanographic Institute of the University of São Paulo (IOUSP). He visited the lab from February-June 2022. He worked on studying the Brazil Current System of transport in the long term and its variability using a global reanalysis model from the Mercator. He defended his undergraduate thesis in November 2022, where he earned an honorable mention. He is currently a master’s student with Dr. Changsheng Chen in UMass Dartmouth.

Caue was a Ph.D. Candidate at UMass Dartmouth – University of São Paulo dual-degree program (School of Marine Sciences and Technology).  He worked on understanding the turbulent mixing across the density surfaces, which brought nutrient-rich waters from the subsurface to the upper sunlit layer of the ocean, therefore, modulating the primary productivity in an oligotrophic ocean. He worked as a postdoc at USP and is currently working as a postdoc at Stanford University.

Dr. Singh is a Scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune, India. She was a PhD scholar at IIT Bombay with Prof Sridhar Balasubramanian. She was visiting the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth as a Fulbright Scholar and worked with Prof Amit Tandon on ‘parameterizing upper ocean mixing processes in models’.

Former Ph.D. Candidate at the University of São Paulo co-advised by prof. Amit Tandon and worked on understanding the submesoscale processes resulting from the interaction between the Brazil Current and the Vitória-Trindade Ridge (Western South Atlantic). Currently, he is working as a Postdoc investigator at Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Óceanographie Spatiales, Toulouse, France.


He worked as a Postdoc and Research Assistant Professor. Currently, he is an Assistant Research Scientist at Texas A&M University. Research topics: Oceanic Submesoscale processes, frontal air-sea interaction, boundary layer turbulence, large-eddy simulation. He is now the VP, Climate Risk Audit Manager in Bank of America.


Former doctoral student in the Engineering and Applied Sciences Program at UMass Dartmouth. He worked on Ocean Currents from Satellites, Inter-comparison of Air-Sea Fluxes, and the Ocean Response to Atmospheric Cold Pools in the Indian Ocean. He was associated with the ASIRI and the MISO-BoB projects, both funded by ONR.


Former postdoctoral fellow. By studying the coupling between mesoscale and submesoscale processes subject to high-frequency air-sea fluxes, he investigated how these processes contribute to phytoplankton productivity in the subpolar oceans in different seasons. He worked as a Hydraulic Engineer at ALDEN (Colorado). He is now employed as an Environmental Scientist at San Francisco Estuary Institute.


Former postdoctoral fellow. Currently faculty member at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.


Former doctoral student. He did his postdoc at University of the Virgin Islands and is currently working as a Research Scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute.


Former doctoral student. Currently working as a Research Scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology.


Cesar B. Rocha is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut who works on a number of topics in ocean dynamics using theory, observations, and computer simulations. Among other things, Rocha is currently leading the Saildrone efforts in the Submesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE). Cesar worked in prof. Tandon’s group as a visiting scholar during his masters in Physical Oceanography at the University of São Paulo.

Brian Mingels (MSME, BSME, REU)

Josh Tombs (MSEE/BSEE, ECE)

Peter Khoury (MSME)

Guido Rosa from USP Brazil.

Eric Holmes, Danielle Tinkham (MS Physics)

Dr. Liuzhi Zhao, Postdoc.

Past REUs: Honors Thesis Jason Vaccaro (now at NUWC), Samuel Fillettaz-Domingues(BSME), Nevin Miller, John Bui, Dr. Jason Olejarz.