About Maike Sonnewald

I am interested in how we bring theoretical constructs and inferences together with observations to meet the needs of modern society. My main affiliation is UC Davis, where I am an Assistant Professor and lead the Computational Climate and Ocean Group. I am also an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, a visiting researcher at Princeton University and a research associate at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

Combining domain knowledge with advanced techniques from data science, I aim to create new insight and accelerate exploration. I primarily work within the ocean and climate realm, but have a formal background in computer science/data science, as my thesis was joint between the National Oceanography Centre (UK), and the Institute for Complex Systems Simulation (University of Southamapton), funded by the EPSRC. I joined MIT as a Postdoctoral Associate working with Carl Wunsch, Patrick Heimbach and Steph Dutkiewitz. I have held visiting positions at Harvard University, and the University of Texas (UT) at Austin.

The impact of my work spans academia, national and international policy. It is featured in the NOAA AI strategy 2021-2025, and used in the science basis for New Zealand's Marine Protected Area legislation. I am cited by the European Parliament and the World Meteorological Organization. My over 60 invited talks include to the United Nations ITU, NOAA Research and the DOE, as well colloquia and major conferences. I am Associate Editor for the 'Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems' (AIES) journal by the American Meteorological Society, have authored numerous review articles and I publish in high impact journals (Science/Nature). I am committed to raising awareness around climate change, and have contributed to the Carbon brief, held sessions at summer camps and open days at museums.

Joining my Computational Climate and Ocean Group

I lead the Computational Climate and Ocean Group at UC Davis. I am actively recruiting graduate students and postdocs/research scientists. Head to our group page to learn more about us and joining.

History

Position and affiliations

  • Assistant Professor at University of California, Davis (2023-present)
  • Visiting Scholar at Princeton University (2023-present)
  • Affiliate Assistant Professor at University of Washington (2022-present)
  • Affiliate Researcher at NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (2020-present)
  • Associate Editor: American Meteorological Society (AMS) Journal of Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems (2022-present)

Education

  • University of Southampton, UK (2011-2016)
    Ph.D. Complex Systems Simulation at the National Oceanography Center
    Dissertation: Ocean model utility dependence on horizontal resolution
  • University of Southampton, UK (2006-2011)
    M. Sci. magna cum laude, complex systems simulation, 2011
    M. Sci. magna cum laude, physical oceanography, 2010

Past positions

  • Associate Research Scholar at Princeton University (2020-2023)
  • Postdoctoral Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2016-2020)

Other positions

  • Visiting Professor at Universit ́e catholique de Louvain, Belgium (2023)
  • Visiting Scientist at University of Washington (2019-2022)
  • Visiting Scientist at Harvard University (2017-2019)
  • Visiting Scientist at Universit ́e Grenoble Alpes, France (2018-2019)
  • Visiting Scientist at University of Texas at Austin (2016-2018)

Impact

Honors and spotlights

Committees and panels in policy sphere

  • Expert committee member for the "Computational system and modeling framework for frontier Earth system science and climate simulation/projection international summit" (2024)
  • Panel member at the 2024 American Meteorological Society Washington Forum which examines public policy issues across the weather, water, and climate enterprise
  • Panel member at the California Ocean Science Trust 2024 symposium on "Fishery Disasters under Climate Change"

Selected contributions to policy sphere

  • Invited talk at the 2024 American Meteorological Society Washington Forum on “The Weather/Climate Data needed for Reliable AI”
  • Invited talk on “Ocean predictability potential” at the California Ocean Science Trust 2024 symposium on “Fishery Disasters under Climate Change
  • Invited talk to UC Davis College of Engineering Executive Committee
  • Invited talk on “Predictability, Predictions, and Applications Interface” for US CLIVAR by the World Climate Research Program under United Nations auspices (2023)
  • Invited talk on “Physical Oceanography” for US CLIVAR by the World Climate Research Program under United Nations auspices (2022)
  • Invited talk to NOAA GFDL HQ site review (2022)
  • Citation by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) of the UN in a concept note on the status, opportunities and challenges of data handling and application of AI in the environmental modeling field, with recommendations for actions for WMO to support the community in its response (2021)
  • Keynote at a Department of Energy AI workshop on “Ocean Grand Challenges" (2021)
  • Featured in NOAA's artificial intelligence strategic plan 2021-2025, a response to the President's Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in AI
  • Cited in a 2020 European Union policy recommendation: “Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union report on Artificial intelligence and the fisheries sector
  • Invited talk NOAA Senior Management Meeting, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (2020)
  • Contributed to the science basis for New Zealand's Marine Protected Area legislation

Advising

Postdocs

  • Incoming (UC Davis, NOAA-CPO)
  • Arijeet Dutta (U. Birmingham, NERC-BRIDGE)

Graduate students

  • Avery Wood (UC Davis)
  • Makayla Mcdevit (UC Davis)
  • Sanah Suri (Washington University in St. Louis)
  • Simon Draeger (UC Davis)
  • Lily Walker (OIST)
  • Jacob Cohen (UW)
  • Yvonne Jenniges (Alfred Wegener Institute)
  • Mariana Clare (Imperial)
    subsequently at ECMWF
  • Giangiacomo Navarra (Georgia Tech.)
    subsequently postdoc at Princeton

Undergraduate students

  • Jasper Dong (UC Davis)
  • William Yik (Harvey-Mudd) Holling Scholar (NOAA)
  • Zouberou Sayibou (Bronx Community College)
    subsequenly undergraduate at Stanford

Teaching

I received the Kaufman Teaching Certificate from MIT in 2017 and enjoy lecturing to a wide range of audiences. I have taught in-person and virtual classes and workshops as well as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC).

Courses

  • ECS 171 (2024): UC Davis. Lecturer on record, "Introduction to Machine Learning", undergraduate. Participants: 100
  • European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Massive Open Online Course (2023): "Machine Learning in Weather and Climate". Registered: 9000+
  • AOS 551 (2021): Princeton University. "Deep learning in geophysical fluid dynamics". Graduate level. Participants: 10

Lectures

  • "Machine Learning for oceanography" (UCLovaine; 2023)
  • Ocean Data Science Summer School (2023)
  • ECS 293 Guest Lecture (UC Davis; 2023)
  • Ocean Data Science Summer School (2022)
  • "Rossby Wave Theory" (GEOMAR Helmholz; 2022)
  • "Uses and Misuses of Machine Learning for Geoscience" (University of Washington; 2022)
  • "Machine Learning for the Geosciences" (GFDL Holling, CIMES and Lapenta undergraduate interns'; 2020)
  • "Machine Learning in Geoscience" (Harvard University; 2019)
  • "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Applied Unsupervised Learning" (Harvard University; 2019)

Tutorials and Workshops

  • Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM): Conference on Mathematical and Computational Issues in the Geosciences. (Milan, Italy; 2021)
  • NOAA-GFDL (2021)
  • "Machine learning and climate modeling" (Princeton University & GFDL; 2019)
  • "Vector Calculus in ECCO" (AGU; 2018)

Commitment to diversity

I believe that diversity is an asset, and that talent should be recognized regardless of race, size, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender-identity or sexual orientation. At UC Davis I was selected a CAMPOS faculty member. Outreach I've engaged in includes the Unlearning Racism in Geoscience project, outreach to the Bronx Community College, and hosting interns from traditionally underserved communities. Mentorship has played an important role for me, and I am formally and informally mentoring graduate students. At MIT I worked to lower the financial barriers to the outdoors as a guide, bringing together diverse individuals in a setting otherwise inaccessible. As a teacher, I try to emphasize existing diversity through highlighting the diverse individuals that made the discoveries.

Outreach

I enjoy engaging with the wider community. A recent highlight that is hard to top is being a member of the COPEZILLA EAPS team for the Red Bull Flugtag. Kelsey Tsipis for EAPS News snapped a great photo of me at the "Nautical day at the MIT Museum". Previously, my engagement found me helping an NGO at COP15 communicating climate change, or being asked to present for the International and Industrial Advisory board of the ICSS.

Personal

I was born in Copenhagen but raised in Norway, and am German from my mothers side. I am fluent in all three languages, and I enjoy traveling to explore new cities and taking in culture.

My main sport is distance running, and I am a passionate proponent of increasing representation and diversity in the outdoors. My efforts here span mentoring and establishing female records in spaces that are male dominated at present. For example, partnering with Katherine Rosenfeld to set a first and fastest known time (FKT) for running the 70+mile High Sierra Trail. I also enjoy climbing, backcountry skiing and mountaineering and have climbed all 5 statovolcanoes in Washington state unassisted.

I am classically trained as a flutist and contemporary/classical ballet dancer, but a series of injuries and life decisions set a stop to this. I have had the honour of performing at the Odd Fellows Palace (DK), Olavshallen (NO) or Turner Sims (UK).