About Me

Welcome!

I am a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) focusing on climate change and sustainability. I look forward to using my expertise in Earth Science and Communication to help design data-driven solutions for sustainability and climate action.

I am a trained interdisciplinary scientist working at the intersection of computational ecology and microbial oceanography. My research explored how microbial physiology, interactions, and resource requirements and exchange affect microbial ecology, trace metal cycling, and nutrient distributions in the ocean. My dissertation focused on the ecological cycling of trace metals and organics (specifically iron, cobalt, and vitamin B12) and how this underwater economy shapes community structure and function in Antarctic coastal seas. I enjoyed connecting insights across ecological scales by combining methods from laboratory-based studies of microbial ecophysiology, field-based uptake rates of trace metals and nutrients, and models of marine microbial interactions.

I recently finished my postdoc in the MIT Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Department (2020-2022) and defended my PhD in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography (May 2020), advised by Professor Mick Follows (MIT) and Dr. Mak Saito (WHOI).

On my site, you can learn about my current work and past research and also my artwork (painting and photography), science communication, and teaching.

NEWS

• July 2024 Our analysis is in review at Nature Energy Comments “Catalyzing a Global Clean Energy Transition with the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act”

• March - May 2024 Selected to participate in BCG x Columbia Climate School’s Climate and Sustainability Stewardship Program

• February 2024 What a full circle moment to see my PhD research published this week in PNAS and Phaeocystis antarctica featured on the cover! I couldn’t imagine a better way to introduce the world to our work and this incredible organism. Click here to read about our discovery of a novel fusion protein that allows Phaeocystis antarctica, and likely many other microbes with complex life cycles, to be flexible to B12 availability. Here is the WHOI press release of our work.

• December 2023 Published BCG’s analysis on if consumers willing to pay for net-zero produced cars and white goods. Read our BCG article here.

• December 2022 Published BCG’s analysis of the global implications of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). I contributed to this research with an incredible team.

• August 2022 This month I start an exciting new chapter in my career as a management consultant focused on climate and sustainability at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

• May 2022 What an eventful month! I ended my tenure at MIT as a postdoc (2020-2022), Ph.D. researcher (2014-2020), and undergraduate (2012). MIT held a special graduation for the classes of 2020/2021 so we could don our hard-earned robes and celebrate together in person. It was an emotionally beautiful day and I couldn’t have asked for a better speaker to encapsulate the importance of this journey—poet laureate Kealoha Wong. Check out his incredible speech and also here I am getting my scroll!. To top it off, I was ecstatic to see my dear friends from undergrad at our 10-year Tech Reunion.

• February 2022 Revisited my Science & Technology Studies (STS) roots and gave a lecture for the Tufts University STS Lunch Seminar on “How International Political Treaties Govern Scientific Research in Antarctica”.

• November 2021 I had the privilege of attending COP26 with the MIT delegation in Glasgow, Scotland. Look out for a blog post sharing my insights from this global meeting on climate change mitigation and adaptation. I was humbled to see the global work towards cooperative efforts for creating a more sustainable, green, and just future.

• June 2021 After a year of negotiations, careful consideration, and community feedback, the famous MIT lecture hall 54-100 will be renamed after Dixie Lee Bryant, a trailblazing woman, earth scientist, and first graduate of the MIT EAPS department. I’m honored to have worked with colleagues in the community-focused naming process that resulted in the first major MIT venue named after an alumna and long overdue recognition of women in science. You can read the full story here.

• May 2021 The first publication coming from the CICLOPS Antarctic cruise has been published! You can find it linked here: Inhibited Manganese Oxide Formation Hinders Cobalt Scavenging in the Ross Sea. I worked with colleagues to understand how manganese and cobalt are co-cycled by marine microbes in Antarctic coastal environments.

• April 2021 Guest lectured for MIT’s Ecological Resiliency course

• April 2021 Attended the 2021 MIT Sustainability Summit. This year the theme is “For Good Measure” and will explore the metrics and standards behind sustainability for companies and governments.

• March 15, 2021 Presented my research with Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory as an invited speaker for the Biology & Paleo Environment Seminar.

• December 2021 Completed the Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program after a fun semester of learning about pedagogy best practices, developing a course curriculum, and practicing micro-teaching sessions through the MIT Teaching & Learning Lab.

• October 28, 2020 Presented my research on micronutrient limitation of Antarctic algae in an invited talk for the University of Washington’s Oceanography Department’s Banse Oceanography Seminar Series and connected with colleagues.

• October 20-21, 2020 Attended Google’s Geo 4 Good Summit and connected with a global community using geospatial data for social and environmental progress.

• June 2020 I (re)joined the Follows Lab / Darwin Project as Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science at MIT!

• May 29, 2020 I am officially a PhD in Biological Oceanography! Congrats to my fellow graduates and thanks to the MIT-WHOI Joint Program for their support throughout my doctorate.

• May 4, 2020 I successfully defended my dissertation via zoom. What a finale to this chapter of my education and career thus far! Dr. Ann Tarrant interviewed me about my defense experience, with its quirks during the covid-19 pandemic. The blog post can be found here.

• . . . filling in the archive . . .