Positions Held

There's evidence in the economics literature that the wealthiest people can't possibly become wealthy due to their intellect alone. There's some luck to it. Similarly, in academia, there's some luck to which way your career turns out. I'm describing my career trajectory here in case anyone looking to get into academia wants to know about a case study (i.e., me) where luck (e.g., times when I failed to communicate as well as other times, was feeling unwell, chose the wrong research topics to study or present, etc...) and circumstances beyond any one person's control (e.g., a two-body problem, an election outcome that changes immigration policy and/or funding levels, etc...) have clashed. This is useful to know–not to discourage anyone interested in generating knowledge or just hoping to pursue their curiosity for a living but–so that the next generation respects every other researcher in the field as much as any other. The binary operation academic may apply in their heads about which people are smart enough based on their own personal metrics will hopefully stop with the generation soon to retire.

In graduate school, there are people who are great at performing well in their classes, there are people who are great at performing well in their research, and there are people who are great at both. Presumedly the people who get their PhDs are great at both and we should assume so unless proven otherwise once they start applying for grants. In postdoc positions (or instead of postdoc positions), there are people who are considering transitioning to a work sector outside of academia, there are people who are adamant about having both feet in the academia, and there are people who try to have one foot in each. Regardless of their preference, academics need to stop thinking that people who transition outside of academia–or even people with at least one foot within academia who are not professors–are unsuccessful. Beyond postdocs, researchers (often) have more (good) ideas than ever before but there are still circumstances that can derail someone's career. That's what you can see (below) has happened with mine.

Employment history:

• • University of Maryland-College Park (Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) through the Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS) cooperative agreement with NOAA STAR/NESDIS Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry (LSA)):

Associate Research Scientist (November 2023-present)

Visiting Associate Research Scientist (August 2022-November 2023)

Job tasks: Develop the Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS) algorithm and further develop new methods to estimate gridded and along-track satellite- based upper water column temperature and salinity for the Next Generation Enterprise Ocean Heat Content (OHC) algorithm; also supervise students, publish peer-reviewed manuscripts, and get proposals funded

• • Louisiana State University (Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences (2/3) and Center for Computation & Technology (1/3)):

Adjunct Professor (April 2024-April 2025)

Assistant Professor (August 2021-July 2022)

Job tasks: Teach classes related to ocean-climate change and big data oceanography, support the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences (DOCS) and the Center for Computation and Technology (CCT) administratively, serve on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion subcommittee for DOCS, support the Research Experience for Undergraduates program for CCT, procure research grant money, supervise and mentor students, and publish peer-reviewed research related to big data oceanography

• • Global Science & Technology (NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR)/National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)):

Senior Scientist (August 2020-July 2021)

Job tasks: Develop methods for exploiting high-latitude Level-2 sea surface salinity data from L-band passive microwave measurements for assimilation by forecasting systems

• • University of Texas-Austin (Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences):

Research Associate (June 2017-August 2020)

Job tasks: Develop the Estimating the Circulation & Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) Production system’s underlying model and observational data streams, perform other research supported by NASA grants, substitute teach upper-level undergraduate/lower-level graduate physical oceanography classes, and be an advocate as part of the American Geophysical Union Voices for Science (policy track) program (April 2018 - March 2019)

• • Johns Hopkins University (Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences through the Goddard Earth Sciences Research & Technology (GESTAR) cooperative agreement with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO)):

Associate Research Scientist (July 2015-May 2017)

Job tasks: Investigate the importance of bias-correcting observationally-inferred ocean mixing parameters are to an Earth system modeling and data assimilation system

• • McGill University (Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences):

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Jan 2014-June 2015)

Job tasks: Research the role of the ocean’s large-scale circulation-radiative cloud feedback interaction in transient climate change and act as the sole lecturer for ATOC 182 (Introduction to Oceanography)

• • University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences):

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (June 2011-Dec 2013)

Job tasks: Evaluate energy budgets, insert bottom flow-topography interaction theories into ocean models, and compare how those theories perform relative to observations (as a participant in 4 out of 5 ocean mixing Climate Process Team (CPT) meetings); also, substitute teach upper-level undergraduate/lower-level graduate physical oceanography classes