In February 2026 I started a position at the IPSL/LOCEAN laboratory in Paris working within the NEMO development team. The position offers the freedom to pursue a number of projects motivated by curiosity-driven questions related to the fundamentals of ocean physics, many of which have a direct impact on how we understand and simulate the ocean as part of the Earth’s climate system.
During much of my career, I have been privileged to be able to pursue a wide suite of research topics unconstrained by the usual boundaries of research proposals and grants. Consequently, my research interests are relatively broad, and they have been largely guided by intellectual interests and the desire to collaborate with a variety of smart and curious individuals.
In recent years, my interests have centered on the role of mathematical physics in addressing fundamental questions of theoretical ocean physics and ocean numerical modeling. The following is an incomplete list of topics that I hope to pursue in the near future through collaborations. I offer just a few words concerning these topics, largely since they are aspirational and incompletely formed. Please feel free to connect with me should you wish to collaborate. I have funds to support one or two postdoctoral researchers in Paris as part of LOCEAN. I also have funds for visits to Paris to support collaborations.
An incomplete list of research topics
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Ocean waves and mean flows using methods from quantum mechanics, Hamilton’s principle, and ray theory, as detailed in
Tracy et al. (2014). -
Modal and non-modal instabilities, with particular emphasis on nonlinear interactions in the presence of topography. Why do ocean physicists pay so little attention to non-normal growth, in contrast to atmospheric physicists? How can variational methods be used to study realistic ocean-flow stability in the presence of topography?
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Coarse-graining methods and their use in understanding multiscale interactions in geophysical turbulence, and in informing subgrid-scale parameterizations. How can we understand the role of linear and nonlinear interactions between the gyrescale, mesoscale, and submesoscale, and their influence on emergent properties of the ocean general circulation? This work builds on Storer et al. (2022) and Storer et al. (2023).
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Theory of ocean mesoscale and submesoscale turbulence that directly informs and constrains parameterizations for ocean circulation models. Can the parameterization of ocean geostrophic turbulence be framed in terms of Hamilton’s variational principle, and can such an approach lead to meaningful advances in ocean circulation modeling? Recent parameterization efforts have focused on mechanical energy, often leaving out the importance of boundaries. Can potential vorticity play a useful role in such parameterizations, given the central importance of boundary processes to potential vorticity?
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Mathematical theory of watermass transformation that applies across arbitrary coordinate systems. Can potential vorticity serve as a useful coordinate for watermass theory. This question builds from an incomplete research path documented in Nurser et al. (2022).
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Hamilton’s principle and differential geometry in numerical modeling. Recent advances offer new approaches to formulating fluid mechanical models based on discrete differential geometry. Can such methods be used to formulate the ocean’s thermo-hydrodynamical equations in pursuit of the next generation of ocean circulation models?