Teaching

Introduction to Ocean Sciences

This undergraduate-level course is intended primarily for junior and senior science, engineering, and math students interested in exposure to Oceanography. The course covers the broad geographical, geophysical, physical, chemical, and biological aspects of oceanography within an interdisciplinary organization. This course was also designed to give information on the global environment with interactions between the ocean, atmosphere, land, and human activities.

Physical Oceanography

This graduate-level course is intended primarily for first-year graduate students who are interested in Oceanography. It covers up-to-date knowledge about the physical properties and dynamic processes in the global and regional oceans. Students are also exposed to major approaches in physical oceanography: observation, numerical model, theory, and a combination of them.

Physical Ocean Science and Engineering Seminar

This graduate-level seminar course aims to improve students’ skills in critical reading, public speaking, and effective presenting. During this course, each student is expected to prepare a few 10-30 min presentations (depending on the amount of information in specific papers) and lead the discussion of the assigned papers. Also, by reading the carefully selected papers, the students are expected to advance their understanding of certain topics.

Introduction to Climate Change and Climate Variability

This introductory graduate-level course presents observations showing the ever-changing climate from early Earth to the present and lays down the fundamental principles of climate science. These principles include the global energy balance, atmospheric and oceanic circulations, as well as other related areas of the physical, chemical, and biological sciences. We also examine various natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change, as well as some of the probable consequences. By completing this course, the students are expected to have a general idea of the current status of climate science and know what the open questions are.

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics

In this graduate-level course intended for students majoring in Physical Oceanography, I started with the fundamentals (e.g., controlling equations of fluid movements and basic concepts like diffusion and transport) and then went through the effects of rotation and stratification on the large-scale flows. A few individual cases that utilize or are closely related to GFD were discussed at the end of this course. By taking this course, students are expected to have a general understanding of GFD and know how to apply GFD principles to their research.

The Warming Papers

Global warming is one of the defining scientific problems of our time. It has crucial implications for the economy, health, and other dimensions. To better appreciate its importance and mitigate the possible impacts, we need to understand the basic underlying science. In this reading course, I, together with students, went through a collection of classic papers that lay the foundation of the current understanding of climate change. Many of the major topics in climate science, such as the greenhouse effect, energy balance, ocean heat uptake, and carbon cycle, are discussed.