Allice Della Penna (University of Auckland)

Talk: Physics-ecology coupling at ocean fine scales: mapping upper-trophic responses

Alice's research focuses on how fine-scale and submesoscale ocean dynamics shape the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems. She works at the intersection of physical oceanography, ecology, and biogeochemistry, and is particularly interested in how mesoscale and submesoscale features, such as fronts, filaments, and eddies, influence the distribution, behaviour, and interactions of marine organisms ranging from microbes and plankton to top predators. To explore these processes, she  combines satellite remote sensing, autonomous observing platforms, high-resolution model outputs, and imaging, and sonar acoustics. IShe is also keen on using findings from fundamental research to incorporate environmental variability more explicitly into ecological and conservation frameworks that reflect the complex dynamics of ocean systems. 

Channing Prend (University of Edinburgh)

Talk: Submesoscale dynamics in the Southern Ocean seasonal ice zone.

Channing is a physical oceanographer and Lecturer at University of Edinburgh in the School of Geosciences. His research interests include Southern Ocean dynamics, air–sea fluxes, ice–ocean interactions, and physical controls on biogeochemical cycling. He is particularly interested in multi-scale questions, which he investigates using a combination of autonomous observing platforms, satellite remote sensing, and numerical models. Channing is the co-chair of the Air–sea Fluxes Working Group of the Southern Ocean Observing System, and a member of the CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Region Panel and the US CLIVAR working group on Small-Scale Processes in the Upper Ocean and their Interaction with the Earth’s Climate System. He received a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a B.A. in Earth Science and Mathematics from Columbia University. 

Amala Mahadevan (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Talk: Submesoscale vertical transport 

Amala Mahadevan is a Senior Scientist in the Department of Physical Oceanography at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Her research focuses on fluid dynamical processes that impact submesoscale transport, ocean ecology, and the marine carbon cycle. She develops and applies computational models to study fluid instabilities, transport, and mixing, and has led research initiatives to measure the ocean on scales of 1-100 km. By integrating observations with modeling, she aims to advance a phenomenological understanding of ocean processes. Amala teaches and advises students in the MIT–WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography. She earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Fluid Mechanics from Stanford University and did her postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. Her honors include the Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship (2015), MIT’s Frank E. Perkins Award for excellence in graduate advising (2019), and WHOI’s Arnold Arons Award for outstanding teaching, advising, and mentoring (2020). She serves as Faculty Dean of Mather House, a residential community for undergraduates at Harvard University.

© Jacob Wenegrat

Jacob Wenegrat (University of Maryland)

Talk: Coupled air-sea interactions at the submesoscale: mechanisms, energetics, and open questions

Jacob Wenegrat is a physical oceanographer, and an Assistant Professor in the department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on the geophysical fluid dynamics of the ocean submesoscale with recent work on flow-topography interaction, multi-scale ocean dynamics, and air-sea interaction. Jacob is an editor for the Journal of Physical Oceanography, co-chair of the US CLIVAR Process Study & Model Improvement Panel and the working group on Small-Scale Processes in the Upper Ocean and their Interaction with the Earth’s Climate System, and recipient of the 2026 AMS Fofonoff Award. He has a PhD in Oceanography from the University of Washington. More info about his work and group can be found at: wenegrat.github.io.

Ananda Pascual (IMEDEA, CSIC)

more info to come

Abigail Bodner ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Talk: Bridging Scales: Understanding Oceanic Submesoscale Turbulence Through Modeling, Observations, and Machine Learning

Dr. Abigail Bodner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) and the Schwarzman College of Computing (SCC) at MIT. Previously, she was a Simons Society Junior Fellow working at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in New York University. Bodner completed her PhD from the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Brown University. She holds Master’s degrees in Applied Mathematics from Brown University and in Atmospheric Sciences from Tel Aviv University. Bodner’s research spans climate, physical oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics, and turbulence. She investigates multi-scale turbulent interactions in the upper ocean using a combination of theory, observations, numerical models, and data driven methods. More information about her group can be found at: https://multiscalemariners.com/