People
Dr. Morgan E O'Neill
Assistant Professor, Physics, University of Toronto (January 2024)
Contact: morgan.oneill ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ utoronto.ca
My work focuses on separating the physics that are fundamental to extreme events from the conditions imposed by a variety of climates. My prior research focused on applying tropical meteorology theory to giant planet dynamics. I am now focused on terrestrial problems of severe weather in a warming world. My current research concerns the outflow dynamics of the worst storms on Earth: tropical cyclones and supercell thunderstorms.
I received my B.S. in Physics at the University of New Hampshire in 2009, and my Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences at MIT in 2015 working with Dr. Kerry Emanuel. I was a Koshland Prize Postdoctoral Fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science and then a T. C. Chamberlin Fellow at the University of Chicago before joining the Earth System Science faculty at Stanford in 2018. I began an assistant professorship in the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto in January 2024.
Teaching
- ESS 228: Advanced survey of current research in climate dynamics (Spring 2022)
- ESS 247: Tropical meteorology (Spring 2019, 2021)
- ESS 279: The climate system and the second law of thermodynamics (Summer 2021)
- ESS 146/246A: Atmosphere, ocean and climate dynamics: the atmospheric circulation (Fall 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023)
- ESS 146/246B: Atmosphere, ocean and climate dynamics: the ocean circulation (co-taught Winter 2019)
Ipshita Dey
PhD candidate
I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Physical Sciences from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, India in 2013. I worked as a scientist in the Atmospheric Sciences Department in Space Applications Centre, ISRO for 5 years before moving to the US to pursue my doctoral degree. I am broadly interested in understanding dynamics of tropical weather systems such as hurricanes and monsoons and their impact on climate variability. To achieve this, I hope to make synergistic use of ground and space-based observations along with idealized and non-idealized numerical models.
Arun Balakrishna
PhD student
I am broadly interested in the role turbulence plays in atmospheric dynamics, specifically how we can leverage tools like large-eddy and direct numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations to better understand global circulation from a modeling perspective and in the context of a changing climate. I am in the mechanical engineering program jointly advised by Professors Morgan O'Neill and Parviz Moin where I am currently studying downslope windstorms and its theoretical extension to supercell systems. I completed my Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2021 with a minor in Mathematics. My research background is experimentally based with experience in plane jet shear flows as well as supercavitation.
Former graduate students:
- Hao Fu, PhD 2023, now the T.C. Chamberlin Fellow in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago
Former summer students:
- Summer 2020, SURGE: Howard Tang, San Jose State University
- Summer 2021, SURGE: Aarón Pacheco, Minnesota State University Mankato
- Summer 2021, SESUR: Howard Qin and Lulabel Ruiz-Seitz, Stanford University
Former Undergraduate Honors Thesis advisee:
- Paco Poler, 2023 (Geophysics)
Former Earth Systems co-term MS student:
- Henri Stern, 2022
- Anissa Foster, 2023
Former postdocs:
Sai Prasanth Bhalachandran