People

Caroline Ummenhofer

Caroline received a Joint Honours B.Sc. in Marine Biology and Oceanography from Bangor University in Wales, and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of New South Wales, Australia, specializing in climate modeling. In 2012, she took up a faculty position in Physical Oceanography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA, following postdoctoral appointments in Australia. She received the Eureka Prize for Water Research and Innovation by the Australian Museum and the James B. Macelwane Medal by the American Geophysical Union. Caroline is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.

Her research interests include interannual to decadal climate variability, Indian Ocean dynamics, the hydrological cycle, monsoons, extreme events, droughts, paleo reconstructions of the last millennium, historical climatology, bio-physical interactions, and marine heatwaves.  Her applied research bridges the gap between ocean and climate dynamics and its impacts on human and natural systems.

Caroline is passionate about communicating and making her research accessible to broader audiences. This includes developing educational resources on extreme weather for K-12 schools serving students around the world or collaborating locally to showcase ocean data collection with fishing communities to students and educators in New England. She has also participated in showcasing scientific findings through art-science collaborations at museum exhibits, such as Indian Ocean Current: Six Artistic Narratives at Boston’s McMullen Museum (2020), Marine Heatwaves at New Bedford Whaling Museum (2023), and Ocean Fever at Cape Cod Cultural Center (2026). As part of the Synergy Project, she has collaborated with artists on topics spanning her research from marine heatwaves, the oceanic water cycle, to historical whaling ship logbooks.

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