DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER:
Associate Professor Oliver Bühler

The Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science (CAOS) is an interdisciplinary research and graduate program within the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. The mission of the Center is to bridge the gap between the theoretical advances in those branches of applied mathematics relevant to geophysical flows and the understanding of phenomena observed in the climate system. The research expertise within the Courant Institute that is directly relevant to the kinds of problems addressed within atmospheric and oceanic sciences includes partial differential equations, numerical analysis, turbulence, fluid dynamics, dynamical systems and chaos, statistical mechanics, adaptive meshes, visualization, and data mining. Associated and core faculty in CAOS are active members of the international science community in all of the scientific disciplines intersecting with the mission of the Center, including dynamical meteorology, physical oceanography, glaciology, and climate dynamics. The placement of the Center within the Courant environment, and the diverse constituent faculty of the Center itself, creates the potential for important advances in the climate sciences.

Faculty

Oliver Bühler, Associate Professor, Mathematics (Atmosphere Ocean Science). Ph.D. 1996 (applied mathematics), Cambridge; Diplom 1992 (applied physics), Technical (Berlin); M.S.E. 1990 (aerospace engineering), Michigan.
Geophysical fluid dynamics; waves and vortices in the atmosphere and ocean; statistical mechanics; sea ice dynamics.

David M. Holland, Associate Professor, Mathematics (Atmosphere Ocean Science); Director, Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science. Ph.D. 1993 (atmospheric and oceanic sciences), McGill; B.A. 1992 (mathematics and computer science), M.S. 1986 (physical oceanography), B.S. 1984 (physics), Memorial.
Climate dynamics; sea-level change; ice and ocean modeling; geophysical fluids laboratory experiments.

Richard Kleeman, Professor, Mathematics (Atmosphere Ocean Science). Ph.D. 1986 (mathematical physics), Adelaide; B.S. 1980 (theoretical physics), Australian National.
Stochastic modeling; predictability and climate dynamics.

Olivier Pauluis, Assistant Professor, Mathematics (Atmosphere Ocean Science). Ph.D. 2000 (atmospheric and oceanic sciences), Princeton; Licence d’Ingénieur Civil en Mathématiques Appliquées 1995, Catholic (Louvain).
Climate; atmospheric dynamics; tropical meteorology.

K. Shafer Smith, Assistant Professor, Mathematics (Atmosphere Ocean Science). Ph.D. 1999 (physics), California (Santa Cruz); B.S. 1992 (physics and mathematics), Indiana.
Large-scale atmospheric and oceanic dynamics; climate dynamics; geostrophic turbulence; waves and instabilities; balanced dynamics.

AFFILIATED FACULTY

W. Stephen Childress, Professor, Mathematics. Ph.D. 1961 (aeronautics and mathematics), California Institute of Technology; M.S.E. 1958 (aeronautical engineering), B.S.E. 1956 (aeronautical engineering), Princeton.
Fluid dynamics and convection.

Andrew J. Majda, Samuel F. B. Morse Professor of Arts and Science; Professor, Mathematics. Ph.D. 1973 (mathematics), M.S. 1971 (mathematics), Stanford; B.S. 1970 (mathematics), Purdue.
Stochastic modeling; tropical atmosphere and deep ocean convection; turbulent and mixing process.

Esteban G. Tabak, Professor, Mathematics. Ph.D. 1992 (mathematics), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Civ.Eng. 1988 (hydraulics), Buenos Aires.
Geophysical fluid dynamics; deep ocean mixing.