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

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 is currently working on the stability of mesoscale and submesoscale oceanic features like vortices and 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 the MISO-BoB project, tracking drifters released in the Bay of Bengal deployed during various field programs and unraveling the physics behind the Diurnal Warm Layers in the Bay. He is particularly interested in air-sea interaction processes.

Ph.D. Candidate at UMass Dartmouth (Engineering and Applied Science).  He is currently working 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.

Ph.D. Student at UMassD – University of São Paulo dual-degree program. Filipe is currently working 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.


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.

Alan is 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. He is currently working on Vortex shedding problem for a two dimensional multi cylinder configuration.

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.

Nicholas is a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student at UMassD who is working on his APEX thesis, which focuses on comparing the meteorological quantities and bulk fluxes between moorings and popular reanalysis products like ERA-5 and MERRA-2 in the Arabian Sea.

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

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.

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 is currently a postdoc investigator in USP.

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


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. Currently working as a Hydraulic Engineer at ALDEN (Colorado).


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


Former doctoral student. Currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of the Virgin Islands.


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.