What is your background and what are you studying/working on now?
I did my undergrad in Aerospace Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder. I think I got into aerospace engineering because of sailing growing up. I’ve been sailing and working on boats since I was a kid. The combo of enjoying working with my hands but also loving maths and physics got me into the fluid dynamics side of things which and pushed me into aerodynamics. My minor at CU Boulder in oceanic and atmospheric sciences got me interested in oceanography.
I graduated during the pandemic and had a summer job running a sailing camp while applying to jobs. But the more jobs I applied to the more I realized that I didn’t quite fit into the typical aerospace workforce and was being drawn more towards science. I felt a desire to do something that would be meaningful and good for the world. I applied to some engineering jobs in oceanography but then I realized that there’s more than one way of getting into that field. So I started applying to grad schools for oceanography while working as a full time research assistant at CU Boulder.
Today I’m in my second year of the Applied Ocean Sciences program at SIO working with Matthew Alford on turbulence and mixing near steep undersea topography, like canyons and seamounts. I do some instrument development too and I’m recently back from a research cruise off the coast of Ireland looking at turbulence in the bottom boundary layer.
What keeps you excited and interested in working in the field of oceanography?
I think just being in love with the natural world and wanting to spend time at sea, wanting to understand the ocean more. And then of course the importance of understanding the ocean in a changing climate. I think climate change contributes part urgency to working in this field, and part inspiration realizing we as humans are not doing a great job taking care of the planet and that scientists can be a part of changing that.
When you were a kid, did you expect to be a scientist or engineer?
I don’t know if I expected it, but it wouldn’t have surprised me. I liked those fields in school. I think that for the longest time, right up until I started applying for grad school and getting interested in oceanography, I could have told you more things that I didn’t want to do than what I wanted to do. I think that’s often the way it goes, you rule things out before you find something you really enjoy.
Were there any particular things from your childhood that drew you to study the ocean?
I grew up near the ocean on Long Island, so every weekend there was a different beach to explore, and I just loved the ocean from a really young age. I started sailing when I was 11 or 12 and have since then worked teaching sailing and done a bit of offshore racing. I think that was also a big part of me getting into oceanography, realizing how much I enjoy being out of sight of land. The idea of getting to be out there as a part of my career was pretty cool. I enjoyed learning how a sailboat works and how you can use the power of wind to move your boat fast, and that insight and excitement was maybe what got me interested in the forces of nature and fluid dynamics to start with.
What skills or abilities do you think are useful when applying to graduate school in oceanography?
Creativity, flexibility and open-mindedness. I think that especially in the field of engineering, one mistake people make is thinking that they already have the best answer figured out and not being open to listen to others and to learn. I think that in both science and engineering people work best as a team, that’s how you get the best results. Humility is important. Wanting to let other people on your team shine and honoring everyone’s unique abilities.
What does a typical work-day look like for you?
A typical work day for me is part fiddling with code to try to process oceanographic data, and part going down to the lab to help out with some engineering project like soldering something or molding some epoxy. I do a lot of paper reading too when I’m doing background research. Right now I am reading a lot of papers just trying to figure out what’s going on in the field and how I fit into that. I really like the variety.
What drew you to study and work at Scripps?
Honestly, Scripps wasn’t the first thing on my radar because it is about as far away from my home on the east coast as you could possibly get in the lower 48. But then I stared researching grad schools, and I was really attracted by the climate change focus and progressive profile Scripps has. Working right at the beach in the sunny California weather is nice too.
Is there a particular scientist or person that inspires you?
I think that one person that inspired me was my mentor in undergrad. Everyone was assigned a faculty mentor for their senior project and ours was this really sweet and badass older woman everyone called Dr G. She was just such a force of nature. I’m really inspired by all the women in the science, especially the ones who have been here for a long time and who paved the way for us.
I’m also inspired by my parents. My mom just published a book she wrote about the role of slavery in America’s founding, especially in the north which is sometimes overlooked as slavery is seen as a “southern thing”. She tells the story of a woman who was enslaved in my hometown during the revolutionary war and I’m really proud of her for illuminating a founding mother of our country, especially in a time when racism is so prevalent and divisive in our country.
Do you have a fun fact that you'd like to share that not everyone knows about you?
When I was in undergrad, I worked in a mechanical engineering lab at CU Boulder on some projects 3D printing cool materials, everything from electronics to cartilage for knee replacements and other medical applications. We also had a project printing simulated moon dirt for NASA and as a part of that we got to try flying on a reduced gravity airplane. So I guess a fun fact is that I’ve experienced what it would be like to be in outer space (it was awesome!).
Written by Kerstin Bergentz