People

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Sylvia Dee

Sylvia Dee is an assistant professor and climate scientist at Rice University specializing in atmospheric modeling, water isotope physics, and paleoclimate data-model comparison. She completed her undergraduate degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering with certificates in Geological Engineering and Environmental Sciences at Princeton University, and her Ph.D. at the University of Southern California Earth Sciences department. She previously held postdoctoral fellowships at the UT Institute for Geophysics and Brown University. 

Sylvia's research projects include topics in climate modeling and climate of the past millennium, using general circulation models (GCMs) and proxy system models (PSMs) to explore the dynamics of the tropical climate system. 

Sylvia is the developer of the water isotope-enabled, fast-physics atmospheric dynamical model, SPEEDY-IER, and a public platform for proxy system modeling development, PRYSM. This modeling platform allows for multi-centennial simulations of common era climate with water isotope physics, which, coupled with proxy system models for proxy records, facilitates the comparison of model output to paleoclimate data.

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Chris Hancock

Dr. Chris Hancock is a postdoctoral scholar at Rice. He completed his Ph.D. at Northern Arizona University working with Dr. Nick McKay. His research interests include using paleoclimate data-model comparison and ensemble climate simulations for the U.S. to understand hydroclimate changes at various timescales.

https://clhancock.shinyapps.io/Website/

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Isabelle Bunge

Dr. Isabelle Bunge is a postdoctoral scholar at Rice. Her research interests include
climate change and human health. She completed her Ph.D. at Columbia University.
https://isabellebunge.owlstown.net/

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Mampi Sarkar

Dr. Mampi Sarkar is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Rice University. Her research focuses on rain evaporation, cloud microphysics, and the atmospheric moisture cycle using satellite observations, field campaigns, and climate models. She is interested in stratocumulus-to-cumulus cloud transitions, warm rain processes, and isotopic modeling. Mampi holds a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Miami and has previously held research positions at NCAR, Boulder and the University of Houston.

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Charlie Marshall

Charlie Marshall is a fifth-year Ph.D. student at Rice working in the Climate Lab. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Math. He is interested in climate modeling and climate dynamics. He is currently working on a project that compares different proxies and models of tropical African climate since the Last Glacial Maximum.

 

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Kelsey Murphy

Kelsey Murphy is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at Rice working in the Climate Lab. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is a Boston native. Her research explores the evolution of the Mississippi River basin's large-scale hydrology over time. 

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Jiayue Yin

Jiayue Yin is a first-year Ph.D. student at Rice, working in the Climate Lab. She graduated from Nanjing University with a Master's degree in Atmosphere Science. She is currently working on a project using water isotope-enabled climate models to evaluate U.S. climate change in the past, present, and future.

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Erika Adjei

Erika Adjei is a first year Master’s student at Rice University, working in the Climate and Water Lab. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, where she studied Environmental Policy and Environmental Science. Her undergraduate research investigated African hydroclimate evolution since the Last Glacial Maximum using climate model experiments. She is excited to begin her studies at Rice this fall! 

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Sidhika Tripathee

Sidhika is a Master's student in the Climate Lab at Rice. She graduated from Swarthmore College with a double degree in Computer Science and Environmental Studies. Sidhika is passionate about combining computational methods with climate science to study its impacts effectively. 

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Andrew Bierbower

Andrew is a first year Ph.D. student studying the impacts of ENSO on tropical cyclones and tropical overturning circulations viewed via water isotope tracers. He graduated from the University of Houston-Downtown where he performed research studying the magmatic evolution of anorthosite bodies in Northern Idaho. Andrew previously conducted research in the Climate and Water lab at Rice as an REU student, and is excited to continue working towards climate science for solutions!

Former Lab Members

  • Dr. Jun Hu, postdoctoral researcher (2019-2022). Current position: Assistant Professor, Xiamen University, China.
  • Dr. Allison Lawman, postdoctoral researcher (2020-2022). Current position: Assistant Professor, Colorado College.
  • Dr. Lizzie Wallace, postdoctoral researcher (2020-2022). Current position: Assistant Professor, Old Dominion University. 
  • Dr. Xiaojing Du, postdoctoral researcher (2022-2023). Current position: Assistant Professor, George Mason University.
  • Dr. Kyle Niezgoda, postdoctoral researcher (2022-2023). Current position: Aeris LLC. 
  • Dr. Xinyue Luo, Ph.D. student (2019-2024). Current position: researcher. 
  • Dr. Na Wang, postdoctoral researcher (2022-2024). Current position: postdoc at UCSB. 
  • Dr. Michelle Frazer, postdoctoral researcher (2023-2024). Current position: NASA scientist.