Welcome to my GitHub! I'm Srishti Dasarathy, PhD Candidate in the Bowman Lab. We are part of the Integrative Oceanography Division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography 🌊

You can view my data science portfolio & blog here, which provides an overview of my work, passion projects, and academic background. Also, connect with me on Linkedin!

• 🔭 🇦🇶 I'm currently researching ties between the surface ocean and lower atmosphere in the Southern Ocean. More specifically, my PhD work focuses on understanding patterns of high latitude tropospheric marine aerosol arising from biological and physical variables. You might be asking what marine aerosols are! A brief explanation is that marine aerosols are particles produced through mainly two diferent mechanisms: (1) Mechanical production; i.e., wind blowing over the surface ocean and lofting up sea spray and (2) through chemical oxididation of a parent organic molecule over generations. These parent organic molecules are released from the activity of primary producers in the surface ocean, or released from sea ice during ice melt in polar regions. These different mechanisms at play make it crucially important to understand how environmental dynamics impact aerosol production.
• 🔭 🇦🇶 Alongside this work, I've also been uncovering the seasonal dynamics of primary producers and polar sea ice and how the environment of the western Antarctic Peninsula has been changing in the 21st century. I've had the amazing opportunity to conduct field work as part of the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research, which makes me really passionate about Antarctic studies.
• 🛰️ To do this work, I utilize multiple years of data from NASA Earth-observing satellites, particularly CALIPSO & MODIS, through which I'm able to examine patterns across the Southern Ocean. I also have a new upcomining project where I'll be using modeled data from the Biogeochemical Southern Ocean State Estimate to examine how changing sea ice conditions in the western Antarctic Peninsula influences primary producers.
• 💃 I can't sit still. Beyond my graduate study, I've also worked to represent the interests of students and been elected as Student Representative and later as Co-Chair of the SIO Graduate Student Council. I'm now learning outside of my role as a graduate student as the Scripps Industry Relations & Innovation Fellow at startBlue!
• 🌱 I am an aspiring Data/Research/Applied Scientist! I love coding and problem-solving and learning about innovative techniques to understand more about the world around us.
• 📫 Reach out to me to network or collaborate at srdasara@ucsd.edu, or fill in a contact form here. I'd love to hear from you!