Ali Mashayek

Our group (Mashayek.com) works on: climate dynamics, physical and biochemical oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics, climate interventions, data-driven methods (HPC, AI, data assimilation).

 

Research Area

We study the role of the ocean in the climate system. This involves studying dynamical processes (from small scale ocean turbulence to regional and global circulation), their coupling to atmosphere and cryosphere (e.g. ocean ice interactions in polar regions), and their coupling to marine biochemistry to study the marine carbon cycle. We conduct process studies but also look at the entire climate system to understand the ongoing climate change and climate change of the Earth’s past. We also work closely with industry to understand the hazards and potentials of climate interventions (e.g. marine carbon dioxide removal, manipulation of polar ice). A rapidly expanding research topic in the group is extreme events (e.g. extreme sea level, ocean circulation instabilities). Increasingly we are connecting our work with policymaking through coupling of science models to socioeconomic models. In terms of tools, we use a combination of observational, theoretical, computational, and data-driven methods.

 

Project Interests

We have openings in my group to study:

• Geophysical fluid dynamics of the ocean and/or atmosphere (turbulence, jets and eddies, regional circulation, global circulation)
• Climate modelling (lower complexity models or fully coupled models) to study climate projections with topics of interest including ocean circulation collapse, polar amplification, tropical dynamics
• AI applied to ocean turbulence parameterization, climate extremes prediction, and design of smart autonomous systems for marine observations
• Ocean biochemistry: from small scale (e.g. primary productivity in the upper ocean) to large scale (marine carbon cycle)
• Marine ecosystems and climate change: coastal ecosystems, fish populations
• Extreme events: extreme sea level and flooding, ocean circulation collapse
• Geophysics-oceanography links: studying how the Earth’s interior dynamics (e.g. tectonics) shape the climate system through modifying the shape of ocean basins and the ocean circulation
• Linking science models (e.g. outputs of climate models or marine ecosystems models) with socioeconomic models to inform policymaking