Fiamma Straneo
Fiamma Straneo grew up in landlocked Milan, Italy, but spent her
summers sailing around the Mediterranean with her family. Combining her
physics background with an interest in earth sciences
and the ocean, she earned a Ph.D. degree at the University of
Washington in Seattle. In 1995,
right after a two-month cruise on a Russian ship in the middle of the
icy Sea of Okhotsk, Straneo
participated in the summer Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Program at WHOI. Walking
around Eel Pond, discussing science, and swimming every day seemed
hard to beat, so she came back to Woods
Hole to pursue postdoctoral studies in 1999, where she has used models
and observations to understand convection
regions, where some of the densest ocean waters are
formed, and found herself back in icy waters. When on land, she is an
organic farmer, “growing my own food, preserving the biodiversity of
our vegetables, and pursuing sustainable living.”
