Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences

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Mara Freilich

Mara Freilich

Thomas J. and Alice M. Tisch Assistant Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Assistant Professor
mara_freilich@brown.edu
Lincoln Field 201
170 Hope St 208
Research Profile
Website
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). 

Recent News

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

NSF renews C-CoMP for five years to investigate the microbial chemistry shaping the ocean’s carbon cycle

The U. S. National Science Foundation has renewed funding for the Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet (C-CoMP) for an additional five years. DEEPS and APMA Professor Mara Freilich is PI on the Center's renewal with a focus on developing multiscale models.
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ecoRI News

South Providence Residents Become Community Scientists through Brown University Research Partnership

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.
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Research Corporation for Science Advancement

6 Teams Win Awards for Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems

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.
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Communications Earth & Environment

Physical controls on heterogeneous mesopelagic biogeochemistry

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.
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