Andrew Thompson Representing Future Alums, President Students@SIO Member, SIO Alumni Network Leadership Team Member, Education Network Executive Committee

Andy Thompson arrived at SIO in 2002 and began work on a PhD in Physical Oceanography under the supervision of William Young. Andy's research focuses on understanding how small-scale ocean mixing and turbulence affects the global circulation. Andy uses both models and theory to understand how ocean eddies transport heat from the equator to the poles, and participated in an observational study of the unique mixing properties of the Southern Ocean, including Antarctica's Drake Passage.

In 1999, as a summer fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Andy was captivated by geophysical fluid dynamics, or GFD and pursued fluid dynamics at Dartmouth College, earning him a B.A. in engineering sciences in 2000. Later, as a Keasbey scholar with Cambridge University, he earned a Masters degree in 2002 for research on the freezing behavior of multiple component fluids.

Andy currently serves as the Chair of the Students@SIO group and is sensitive to the challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities awaiting students once they graduate SIO. The diverse career paths of the SIO alumni community offers current SIO students a tremendous mentoring resource. Improving communications among SIO alumni, Andy believes, will benefit both current and future alumni.