Research Interests
Environmental Science, Oceans Ice and Atmospheres
Pronouns
she/her
Biography
I study the ways that physical oceanographic processes, including fronts and eddies, affect ocean microbial ecology, carbon cycling, and nutrient distributions. My work understanding the link between biological and physical processes involves advancing knowledge of ocean physical dynamics and developing methodologies for modeling ecological processes in the context of environmental variability. In addition, I am interested in engagement with community groups to mobilize climate science for environmental justice. I use a range of methods from numerical ocean models and theory to observational work at sea (including remote sensing and microbial genomics).
Local residents and researchers are working together in a community-led effort called "WaterSpeak" to test the air, water and soil in the Port of Providence. DEEPS Assistant Professor Mara Freilich has partnered with the People’s Port Authority, a grassroots environmental organization, to help community scientist investigate questions to understand how pollution is affecting the community. The team also plans collaborate with Breathe Providence, a research team at Brown University that tracks neighborhood air quality across the city, including along Allens Avenue.
Assistant Professor Mara Freilich's project is one of six cross-disciplinary projects to receive an award in the second year of Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems. This Scialog initiative was launched to spur novel interdisciplinary research into the complex processes behind neurobiological adaptation to stressors like exposure to pollution, toxins, and increasingly unpredictable environments.
In a recent perspective paper, Assistant Professor Mara Freilich, former posdoc Lilly Dove, and graduate student Katarina Merk present observational and model-based evidence for ocean eddy processes that lead to small-scale heterogeneity in the upper mesopelagic ocean.
DEEPS PhD student Alejandra Lopez describes her research on the Salton Sea alongside community volunteers. Through rigorous science and community engagement, Alejandra's work on the Salton Sea Project is demonstrating what environmental research can accomplish when it centers the needs and knowledge of those most impacted.
IBES awarded grants to six core and affiliate faculty members, allowing them to conduct research that crosses boundaries and benefits communities, both at Brown and around the world.
Assistant Professor Mara Freilich is co-editor on a new book, "Climate Changed: Models and the Built World," available now through Colombia University Press. The book examines models and their imperfect yet central role in understanding the relationship between global climate dynamics and the human-built environment. It compares and synthesizes the methods and function of models in disciplines ranging from architecture and planning to climate science and natural hazards research.