Each year, students from EAPS and the MIT-WHOI Joint Program turn in an impressive array of planetary and geoscience research, helping to advance human understanding of the natural world.
We’re proud to share this list of degrees earned during the 2025-2026 academic year as we watch our graduates launch into bright career futures! Congratulations, all!
| Student | Degree | Advised By | Thesis Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Katy Abbott | PhD* | Amala Mahadevan (WHOI) | Vertical transport and transformation of biogeochemical properties in the upper ocean |
| Lubna Khalid AlBarghouty | PhD | Sai Ravela | Multiple Event Location and Phase Association via Machine Learning-Guided Joint Inference |
| Nadege S. Aoki | PhD* | T. Aran Mooney (WHOI) | Investigating the Ecological Role of Sound on Coral Reefs |
| Kaylee Barrera | SB | Tracy Robyn Slatyer (Academics; Course 8) Richard Teague (Thesis) | Evaluating Parametric Models of the Edge-on Protoplanetary Disk Gomez’s Hamburger |
| Shavonna Bent | PhD* | Benjamin Van Mooy (WHOI) | Microbial Responses to Environmental Forcing and Implications for Trophic Transfer through the Lens of Lipidomics |
| Jared Thomas Bryan | PhD | William Frank | Probing Crustal Rheology With Temporal Changes in Seismic Velocity and Anisotropy |
| Theo Carr | PhD* | Caroline Ummenhofer (WHOI) | Implications of Seasonality and Asymmetry for ENSO’s Predictability and Future Changes |
| Sean Chen | PhD* | Olivier Marchal (WHOI) | On Subannual Variability in the Abyssal Ocean |
| Michael Dotzel | PhD* | Irina Rypina (WHOI) | Submesoscale Eddies and their Potential for Buoyant Microplastic Accumulation |
| Sabrina Mariam Elkassas | PhD* | Jeffrey S. Seewald (Academics; WHOI) Julie Huber (Thesis; WHOI) | Microbial Communities, Activities, and Metabolisms in Earth’s Subseafloor and Analog Oceanic Environments |
| Evangeline Fachon | PhD* | Donald M Anderson (WHOI) | Dynamics and Impacts of Toxic Alexandrium catenella Blooms in the Pacific Arctic |
| Lesly Joanne Franco | PhD | Jesse Kroll (Course 1) | Comprehensive Laboratory Studies of Organic Oxidation Across a Range of Photochemical Ages and Peroxy Radical Conditions |
| Mariya Galochkina | PhD* | Anne Cohen (WHOI) | From global climate to local impacts: interacting drivers of marine heatwaves on Caribbean coral reefs |
| Megan N. Gillen | PhD* | Taylor Perron | Signatures of Land-Ocean Interactions in Coastal Morphology |
| Samantha Hasler | PhD | Kerri Cahoy | Using Phase Curves and Color to Detect and Characterize Planetary Bodies from Exoplanets to Asteroids |
| Faye M. Hendley Elgart | PhD | John Marshall | Toward New Maps of Basal Melt Rate in Antarctic Grounding Zones through Inverse Modeling of Tidal Flexure with ICESat-2 |
| Cora Alden Hersh | PhD* | Geoffrey Gebbie (WHOI) | Tunnels in the Ocean: Formation and Propagation of Interannual Water Mass Anomalies in Global Subtropical Cells |
| Lilli Evelyn Hirth | SM* | Sylvia Cole (WHOI) | Air-Ice-Ocean Interactions under a Summer Arctic Cyclone: Observations from Two Ice-Tethered Profilers |
| Max A. Jahns | PhD* | Matt Johnson (WHOI) | Metabolic Drivers of Community Dynamics in Marine Microorganisms |
| Ian Jimenez Moncion | SB | Julien de Wit | Modeling Threat Assessment Capacity for Next-Generation Planetary Defense |
| Katherine Ann Kempff | SB | Michael Howland (Academics) Paloma Duong (Thesis) | 1-12 Capstone Project |
| Jae Deok Kim | PhD* | Robert Evans (WHOI) | Physics-Based and Data-Driven Inversion of Magnetotelluric Data for Subsurface Imaging |
| Namitha Kumar | SM* | Tricia Gebbie (WHOI) | Hydrogen Variability in Abyssal Peridotites: Implications for Rehydration Processes in the Residual Cceanic Lithosphere |
| Victoria C. Martens | SB | Mick Follows | Observing, modeling and interpreting the seasonal succession of phytoplankton in the lower Charles River |
| Helena A. McDonald | SM | Noelle Selin and Barbara Delabarre (Academics) Raymond Speth (Thesis) | Mitigation of Launch Vehicle Emissions Environmental Impacts through Global Modeling with Observational Constraints |
| Annaliese C. S. Meyer | PhD* | Tricia Gebbie (WHOI) | Insights into the Influence of Cobalt and Zinc Availability on Marine Microbial Communities in the Pacific and Southern Oceans |
| Liam Phalen Moser | PhD* | Tricia Gebbie (Academics; WHOI) Juan Canales (Thesis; WHOI) | Imaging Subduction Zones: Slab Structure, Fluids, and Fault Slip |
| Paola D. Namphy | SB | Matěj Peč (Academics) Kristin Bergmann (Thesis) | Anaerobic Methane Oxidation across the Last Glacial Cycle: Clumped Isotope Constraints from Atlantic Margin Seep Carbonates |
| Olivia Grace Norman | PhD | Colette Heald (ETH Zürich) | Understanding Model Representation of Aerosol Composition: From Secondary Inorganic Aerosols to Phosphorus |
| Maurielle Noto | SM | Gaia Stucky de Quay | Global Valley Widths on Mars |
| Ellen Ryunhwa Park | PhD* | David Nicholson (WHOI) | Quantifying Ocean Carbon and Oxygen Cycles Using Biogeochemical Argo |
| Phadtaya Poemnamthip | PhD* | Weifeng Zhang (WHOI) | Hydrodynamics of a Coral Atoll and Connection to Climate Variability |
| Keefe Wynn Rafferty | SM* | Tricia Gebbie (WHOI) | Characterization of the East China Sea Continental Shelf Circulation Northeast of Taiwan Surrounding Mien-Hua Canyon |
| Vidya R. Ranjan | SB | Abigail Bodner (Academics) Glenn Flierl (Thesis) | Quantifying quasi-equilibrium breakdown in climate emulators |
| Spencer Rhodes | SB | Taylor Perron | Creation and Testing of an Automated Data Reduction Pipeline for Exoplanet Candidates |
| Mason Rogers | PhD* | Raffaele Ferrari | Effects of Ocean Turbulence on the Large-Scale Stratification and Small-Scale Particle Distributions |
| Shari Rohret | PhD* | Joan Bernhard (WHOI) | Benthic Meiofaunal and Micro-Eukaryotic Inhabitation of Extreme Environments: Submerged Caves and Hydrocarbon Seeps |
| Hannah E. Rose | SB | Tim Cronin (Academics) Lyle Nelson (Thesis) | Bayesian tectonic subsidence model for Morocco constrains age of the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary |
| Lily H. Sanborn | PhD* | Tricia Gebbie (WHOI) | Environmental Drivers of Coastal Evolution |
| Miraflor Padilla Santos | PhD* | Heidi Sosik (WHOI) | Seasonal Predictability and Interannual Variability in Coastal Planktonic Communities |
| Una Gaylin Schneck | PhD | Taylor Perron | The Fluvial Geomorphology of Titan’s Lakes and Seas |
| Kharis C. Schrage | PhD* | Kristin Meyer-Kaiser (WHOI) | Early Life-History Ecology of Arctic Benthic Invertebrates |
| Fadime Renee Stemmer | SM* | Tricia Gebbie (WHOI) | The Exo-Proteomic Framework for Nitrogen Acquisition from Proteinaceous Organic Matter in the Model Marine Heterotroph Ruegeria Pomeroyi DSS-3 |
| Yudong Sun | PhD | Camilla Cattania | Modeling Complex Evolution of Slow to Fast Earthquakes on Simple and Heterogeneous Faults |
| Jan Toomlai | SB | Mark Vogelsberger (Academics; Course 8) Richard Teague and Julien de Wit(Thesis) | Constraining Starspot Sizes on TRAPPIST-1 with JWST Observations of TRAPPIST-1 b and c |
| Scott Tewksbury Wieman | PhD* | Tricia Gebbie (Academics; WHOI) Weigh Guo (Thesis; WHOI) | Methane Cold Seeps: Paleo Proxies, Modern Measurements, and Instrument Development |
| Weiguang Wu | PhD* | Amala Mahadevan (WHOI) | Vertical Transport at Curved Ocean Fronts |
| Isabella C. Yeung | SB | Glenn Flierl (Academics) Ryan Woosley and Carolina Bastidas (MIT Sea Grant) (Thesis) | Evaluating the Sub-Seasonal Variability in Coastal Waters in Shellfisheries in Massachusetts, USA |
