The centerpiece of the Center’s activities is a vibrant fellowship program that provides support for Francis E. Fowler IV Center Fellows to work on innovative research projects linking the ocean and climate. Project themes range from predicting extreme weather events to using deep sea corals to understand past climate-related changes in major ocean currents.
Hauke Kite-Powell
Marine Policy Center
(2025 – 2027)
Hauke is working to forecast how economic value from marine ecosystems is likely to change in light of climate, and how resource management measures can support ecosystem health and resilience in that context. His work has included the economics of aquaculture, decarbonization of the fishing fleet and marine plastics. Hauke is a Research Specialist in the Marine Policy Center.
Yogesh Girdhar
Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering
(2025 – 2027)
Yogesh (Yogi) is a computer scientist and roboticist working to predict ecosystem state through the development of large artificial-intelligence models which can be trained on diverse multi-modal data. Yogi is interested in seafloor ecosystems including those accessed by autonomous underwater vehicles. As a founding member of the Reef Solutions Team, Yogi has developed CUREE, a curious robot for coral reef mapping and exploration including hotspots of biodiversity and animal tracking. Yogi is a tenured scientist in the Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering Department.