Abigail Bodner

Assistant Professor
Joint Appointment, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)

Contact Info:

Office Phone

617.253.4850

Office

54-1622

Assistants:

Administrative

Darius Collazo 617.253.0251

Investigates turbulence in the upper ocean and coastal sea level drivers using numerical simulations, climate models, and machine learning.

Research Interests

I am fascinated by the way mathematics can describe fluid motion. My research interests span climate, physical oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics, and turbulence. I investigate turbulence in the upper ocean from O(100 km) to O(1 m) using a combination of theory, high-resolution numerical simulations, climate models, and machine learning. I also have a growing interest in understanding drivers of coastal sea level.

Topics I investigate:

  • Physical oceanography
  • Geophysical fluid dynamics
  • Turbulence
  • Climate modeling
  • Machine learning

Biographic Sketch

Abigail Bodner joined the EAPS faculty in 2024, with a shared appointment in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). Bodner earned a BSc and MSc from Tel Aviv University studying mathematics and geophysics, atmospheric and planetary sciences. She then went on to Brown University, earning an ScM in applied mathematics before completing her PhD studies in 2021 in Earth, environmental and planetary science. Prior to coming to MIT, Bodner was a Simons Society Junior Fellow working with Dr. Laure Zanna at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University.

Key Awards & Honors

  • 2023 • NASA Transform to Open Science Training Award
  • 2021 • Simons Society Junior Fellow

Key Publications

  • Bodner, A.S., Balwada, D, & Zanna, L. A Data-Driven Approach for Parameterizing Submesoscale Vertical Buoyancy Fluxes in the Ocean Mixed Layer. In preparation: doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2312.06972

  • Bodner, A. S., Fox-Kemper, B., Johnson, L., Van Roekel, L. P., McWilliams, J. C., Sullivan, P. P., Hall, P. S., & Dong, J. (2023). Modifying the Mixed Layer Eddy Parameterization to Include Frontogenesis Arrest by Boundary Layer Turbulence. Journal of Physical Oceanography53(1), 323-339. doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-21-0297.1

  • Bodner, A. S., Fox-Kemper, B. (2020). A breakdown in potential vorticity estimation delineates the submesoscale-to-turbulence boundary in large eddy simulationsJournal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems12, e2020MS002049. doi: 10.1029/2020MS002049

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