Stephen Griffies

Stephen Griffies

Ocean physicist

Available postdoc(s) in Paris

In February 2026, I started a position at the IPSL/LOCEAN laboratory in Paris working within the NEMO development team, and funded through Choose France for Science. The position provides funds for one (possibly two) postdoctoral researchers working with me within the NEMO team at the LOCEAN lab in Paris. Funding supports curiosity-driven research addressing questions at the heart of ocean fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, with an emphasis on how the ocean works within the Earth’s warming climate system.

The position is within a vibrant group of theoretical, numerical, and observational ocean and climate physicists, biogeochemists, and engineers at LOCEAN, along with a community of 40-50 graduate students and postdos. LOCEAN is within the Sorbonne Universite and is located in the Latin Quarter of Paris, which offers a wealth of intellectual and cultural opportunities and exchanges. Furthermore, the postdoc is part of the broader European NEMO community, which offers many opportunities to collaborate with a wide range of theoretical and applied ocean scientists.

Salary is commensurate with experience and comes with the standard benefits of a French employee (e.g., generous health care, unemployment insurance, and nine weeks vacation). The position is renewable annually (based on progress) with funding for two to three years.

Postdoc Application Requirements

  1. Full CV
  2. Research aims and career aspirations (3-4 pages)
  3. Names for three letter writers
  4. Materials sent to Stephen.M.Griffies@gmail.com

Applications are solicited until suitable candidates are found. Candidates are expected to possess a PhD with strong training and acumen in mathematical physics and computational physics, along with a sincere passion for collaborative research in theoretical ocean physics. Below is an incomplete list of projects that are of interest to me, though I am open to other proposed projects.

  • 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?

  • 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).

  • 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?

  • Hamilton’s principle and differential geometry in numerical modeling. Recent advances offer new approaches to formulating fluid thermo-mechanical models based on discrete differential geometry. Can such methods be used to formulate the ocean’s equations in pursuit of the next generation of ocean circulation models?