Jennifer MacKinnon, Scripps acting associate professor/associate researcher
Scripps Welcomes New Oceanography
Professor
Jennifer MacKinnon joins
the Scripps faculty
Scripps Institution of
Oceanography/University of California, San Diego
Jennifer
MacKinnon was recently appointed as the newest faculty member of Scripps
Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
MacKinnon
is a newly appointed acting associate
professor/associate researcher
of oceanography in Scripps' Climate, Atmospheric Science, and Physical
Oceanography (CASPO) Division. Her research focuses on turbulent mixing that
mediates the exchange of heat, dissolved greenhouse gases, and biological
nutrients between the surface and the deep ocean. She uses a combination of seagoing
observations, theory, and computer simulations to understand the dynamic
processes that produce turbulence, such as breaking internal gravity waves. Her
goal is to develop better parameterizations of turbulent mixing for use in
large-scale global ocean and climate models. "I am excited to
join the faculty at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. I've been at Scripps
as a researcher for five years now and look forward to continuing my research
into small-scale physics in the ocean,” said MacKinnon. “I'm also looking
forward to participating in the educational mission of Scripps, from teaching
to mentoring graduate and undergraduate students.”
Born
in Oakland, Calif., MacKinnon received her B.A. degree in physics from
Swarthmore College in 1995, and a Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of
Washington in 2002. She joined Scripps in 2002 as a post-doctoral researcher
and became an associate research oceanographer in 2004. Her appointment as an associate
professor formally began in November 2009.
MacKinnon
has conducted fieldwork in three major oceans and several marginal seas. She has received grants from the
National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. When not at sea,
MacKinnon is a frequent participant in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics summer
program in Woods Hole, Mass. She is also the chair of a working group on ocean
mixing affiliated with the International Council for Science Scientific
Committee on Ocean Research. MacKinnon is a member of the American Geophysical
Union, the American Physical Society, and the Sigma Xi Society.
-- Shannon Casey
November 17, 2009
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