Laura Cimoli

Physical oceanographer, with a focus on the global-scale ocean circulation and its transport of heat and carbon.

 

Research Area

I am a physical oceanographer interested in ocean dynamics and its role in the climate system. The ocean circulation plays a key role in redistributing heat polewards, and in sequestering and redistributing carbon, oxygen, and nutrients, hence contributing to the regulation of our climate. Moreover, the oceans have so far mitigated the effects of climate change by sequestering about 90% of the excess warming and about 30% of carbon emissions of anthropogenic origin. My research focuses on investigating the role of the ocean circulation, and in particular of the deep and abyssal water masses, in sequestering and redistributing heat and carbon around the globe. I work extensively with global observations and data-driven methods and collaborate with ocean modellers to work on problems that can span from small-scale ocean turbulence to the large-scale ocean circulation and its variability. I am a member of GO-SHIP, an international program maintaining long-term global ocean ship-based observations, and conduct regular fieldwork at sea.

 

Project Interests

I would be happy to develop projects in wide physical oceanography areas, as well as multidisciplinary projects at the intersection of ocean dynamics with ocean biogeochemistry. I am particularly interested in developing projects that focus on the mechanisms and timescales of the oceanic heat and carbon sequestration, using a combination of existing data, models, and machine learning techniques.