People
Ching-Yao Lai (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Geophysics and an Affiliated Faculty of the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME) at Stanford University. Prior to Stanford she was an Assistant Professor at Princeton University. Yao completed her undergraduate study (2013) in Physics at National Taiwan University, PhD (2018) in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University, and postdoctoral research in earth science at Lamont Earth Observatory at Columbia University.
Yao grew up in Taiwan. Other than science, Yao likes traveling, exploring nature, photography, food and bubble tea. She also enjoys playing ping-pong and classical music.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Stephanie Olinger (she/her) is a geophysicist and a Thompson Postdoctoral Fellow working on understanding coupled ice-ocean systems using mechanical models and a diverse range of observational techniques, including seismology, distributed acoustic sensing, and remote sensing, Her research interests include ice shelf dynamics, glacier deformation, cryovolcanism on icy moons, and climate intervention. Stephanie received her PhD in 2023 from Harvard University under the supervision of Profs. Brad Lipovsky and Marine Denolle. She is currently studying how ice shelf rifts respond to ocean-induced thinning.
Stephanie is from Richmond, VA. She enjoys playing guitar, cooking for friends and family, and spending time with her cat, Huey.
Yue (Olivia) Meng’s (she/her) research interests lie in multiphase flow in porous media, granular mechanics, energy and environmental sciences. She combines continuum theory, discrete element modeling and novel experimental technique (photoporomechanics) to study the fundamental mechanics involving solid-fluid coupling. She received her master’s and PhD (2022) degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT, supervised by Professor Ruben Juanes. She is studying the granular physics of melange, sea ice, its impact on icebergs calving and response to global warming.
Outside academics, she is a weekend warrior for triathlon races, targeting to qualify for Ironman703 World Championship before 2025.
Yongji Wang (he/him) was a postdoc in our group. He is now a postdoc at NYU Courant, and a visiting postdoc in our group. His research interests lie in continuum mechanics, complex fluids, and computer vision techniques. He has rich experience in developing novel experimental approaches and computer vision techniques for quantifying complex physical systems in nature. He received his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his master’s degree in applied Mathematics (Part III of the Mathematical Tripos) from the University of Cambridge with a Distinction. His current research focuses on using neural networks for multiscale inverse problems, from inferring ice-shelf rheology and to finding self-similar blow-up solutions to fluid equations.
Graduate Students
Ben Alessio is a 1st-year PhD student in mechanical engineering. He completed his undergraduate degree in physics at Princeton University. Following his graduation, he was awarded a Fulbright grant to research extreme weather events in Concepción, Chile. He researched diffusiophoresis for his senior thesis at Princeton and later as a visiting researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His current interests include granular physics and fluid mechanics with applications in geophysics.
Ben is from Algonquin, Illinois. He enjoys walking, thunderstorms, playing the drums, and watching the Chicago Bears.
Email: balessio@stanford.edu
Niall Coffey (he/him) is a 3rd-year PhD student in Geophysics. He completed his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Economics at the University of Chicago (2021), where he researched ice shelf surface rolls with Prof. Doug MacAyeal. He is interested in both the theoretical development of the physics of ice sheets and shelves, as well as applications of novel statistical approaches for prediction and inference of elements of the cryosphere.
Niall is from Long Island, New York, where he enjoys playing soccer and running along beaches and wooded trails. In his free time, he likes laughing with friends, momentarily displacing metal at a gym, and watching stand-up comedy.
Email: nbcoffey@stanford.edu
Josh Rines (he/him) is a 3rd-year PhD student in Geophysics. He completed his bachelor's degree at Bates College where he studied mathematics and physics. Before graduate school, Josh began studying ice sheet deformation during his master's program at Boston College. He is interested in understanding the impacts of climate change on large-scale ice dynamics through modeling, remote sensing, and machine learning.
Josh is from Hollis, New Hampshire. He enjoys hiking, climbing, pottery, road trips, and spending time with friends and family. He cheers for the Boston Red Sox, the Seattle Mariners, and Tom Brady.
Email: jrines@stanford.edu
Undergraduate Students
Jakin Ng '25 (she/her) is a junior undergraduate in the math and computer science departments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) doing research in our group at Stanford. She joined our group as an intern in summer 2023, she is working on using physics-informed neural nets to learn turbulence. She is broadly interested in applying computational tools to climate problems.
Jakin is from Ithaca, New York, where she likes to go on walks in the forest. In her free time, she enjoys folding origami, learning to cook, and making things.
Email: jakinng@mit.edu
Iona Xia (she/her) is currently a freshman at Stanford University. She is interested in studying the intersection of the earth and environmental sciences with computer science, using techniques such as machine learning to better understand the effects of climate change. In the past, she has also researched and designed deep learning applications in the field of astronomy. She is currently working on a project applying machine learning to the study of rapidly-draining lakes.
Iona is from Saratoga California. Beyond academics, she enjoys music, playing a Chinese instrument called the Ruan, taking walks outside, and hanging out with friends.
Email: ionaxia@stanford.edu
Judy Liu, a Stanford sophomore student in Physics, dives into the world of geophysics with a special fondness for ocean waves. Currently, she is exploring the granular characteristics of ice flows.
When not riding the crests of fluid dynamics, she finds solace in the strings of her harp, letting melodies untangle the knottiest equations. A fiery Wushu enthusiast, Judy channels her inner martial artist to combat academic stress. For a change of pace, she laces up her running shoes or grabs her surfboard, surfing her worries into submission.
Email: liujudy@stanford.edu
Alumni
Riley Culberg (he/him) was a HESS Postdoctoral Fellow working with our group in 2022-2023. His research focuses on understanding the near-surface hydrology and internal structure of ice sheets and icy planetary bodies using ice-penetrating radar. He is particularly interested in developing quantitative geophysical imaging approaches that can be integrated with situ measurements, surface remote sensing methods, and numerical models to better understand the links between englacial processes, climate, and ice sheet stability. He received his M.Sc. (2019) and Ph.D. (2022) in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Outside of academics, he enjoys hiking, trail running, and orienteering.
After Princeton, Riley joined Cornell as a faculty member in Fall 2023.
Evan Chandran ’24 is an undergraduate in the physics (PHY) department who worked on a Junior paper with our group in 2023. He is interested in the applications of mathematics and computational techniques to problems in physics and geosciences, and currently he is working on incorporating ice composite rheology into the forward and inverse problems of ice-shelf dynamics.
Evan is from Durham, New Hampshire, where he loves taking trips the ocean and mountains. Outside of academics, he enjoys singing, practicing piano, traveling, and playing strategy games.
Email: evancc@princeton.edu
Hugh Shields '24 was an undergraduate in the geosciences (GEO) department doing independent work for his Junior project in our group in 2022-2023. He is interested in the intersection of climate modeling and machine learning and hopes to learn more about the physics of ice sheets and shelves. He is currently working on using decrete element models to simulate the granular mechanics of ice melange.
Hugh is from Fort Defiance, Virginia, where he likes to roam through Shenandoah National Park. When he gets the chance, Hugh enjoys playing soccer and ultimate frisbee, hiking, traveling, and nature photography.
Email: nikolaus@princeton.edu
Yunona Iwasaki '23 worked in our group as a junior/senior undergraduate in the Physics department (PHY) at Princeton in 2021-2023. She did a Junior Paper in our group. She is broadly interested in applications of physics to tackling environmental issues, and is also eager to explore novel machine learning techniques for modeling complex natural phenomena. In our group she worked on using deep neural networks constrained by physical laws for both forward and inverse modeling of an idealized ice shelf.
In her free time, Yuno enjoys long walks and train rides.
After Princeton, Yuno will join Berkeley as a PhD student in Fall 2024.
Charlie Cowen-Breen '22 (he/him) was a Princeton Mathematics major (MAT) who worked on a junior paper and senior thesis in our group in 2021-2022. He also obtained a certificate in statistics and machine learning (SML). His interests lie in novel applications of traditionally pure fields of mathematics to physics and computer science. His work in our group focuses on understanding the theoretical minimum loss and the loss landscape of physics-informed neural networks.
Charlie is from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he enjoys sailing on the Charles river when it isn’t frozen! In his free time, he enjoys cooking, woodworking, and playing basketball and guitar.
After Princeton, Charlie did Part III at Cambridge, before joining MIT as a PhD student in Fall 2023.
Elizabeth Berzin '23 worked in our group as a junior/senior undergraduate in the physics (PHY) department, doing an independent work for the Applied and Computational Mathematics (PACM) certificate in our group in 2021-2023. She has a general interest in the application of physics and computational tools to problems in environmental science. She is currently working on models of ice shelf collapse, through simulations of local interactions between hydrofracture events.
In her free time, Elizabeth enjoys playing tennis, drawing, and playing piano.
After Princeton, Elizabeth joined Stanford as a PhD student in Fall 2023.
Fairuz Ishraque (he/they) worked in our group as a first-year PhD student. His is now working with prof. John Higgins. He received his B.S. in Astrogeophysics and Applied Mathematics at Colgate University, where he researched cold-based glaciers on Mars and Antarctica with prof. Joe Levy. He is interested in modeling the response of the terrestrial cyosphere to climatic forcings using numerical methods, remote-sensing, and machine learning.
Ishraque is from Chittagong, Bangladesh. He enjoys climbing, bandminton, and obsessing over roadcut geology. On especially dark, cloudless nights, he likes to go out with his tripod and camera to take pictures of the night sky.
Email: fi5735@princeton.edu
Ryan Eusebi '22 was a Computer Science major (COS) who worked on a senior thesis co-advised by prof. Gabe Vecchi and Yao in 2021-2023. He is interested in atmospheric and climate dynamics, extremes, and modeling and the intersection of physics-informed machine learning with the geosciences. His senior thesis involves using physics-informed neural networks for hurricane data assimilation and flow modeling based on sparse observations.
Outside of academics, Ryan loves running, rock climbing, and hiking, and hopes to eventually run marathons and trail races in his spare time.
After Princeton, Ryan joined Caltech as a PhD student in Fall 2022.
Wiley Kohler ’25 is an undergraduate math major (MAT), who worked in our group as a High Meadows Environmental Institute intern in summer 2022. He is interested in using mathematical tools and computer science to understand geophysical systems. With our group, he worked on using physics-informed neural networks to model the behavior of Antarctic ice shelves.
Outside of academics, Wiley enjoys cooking, road trips, and running and hiking.
Email: wileykohler@princeton.edu
Jakob Kintzele '22 completed his undergraduate degree at Princeton Geosciences (GEO) with a thesis on fracture transport of ocean water in Europa’s ice shell, advised by Allan Rubin, Yao Lai, and Chris Chyba. In the Lai and Rubin research groups, Jakob rewrote a 1980s displacement discontinuity code to simulate series of basal and surface crevasses in floating ice shelves. He is also interested in non-Newtonian creep and thermodynamics of planetary ices.
Jakob is running cross country for the University of Portland while pursuing a Sustainability MBA. He plans to begin a Ph.D. in ice physics after graduation.
Ray (Ming-Ruey) Chou worked in our group as a machine learning engineer in 2021-2022. Ray received both his B.S. and M.S. in Physics at National Taiwan University. He is enthusiastic about applying machine learning and computer vision techniques to solve real-world problems involving images. He has extensive experience with Tensorflow and is working with the lab members to promote the transparency and reproducibility of all coding experiments in the lab.
Ray is well-known for his love of bubble tea. He is also a lifetime tabletop game lover and is a collector of hundreds of board games.
Elijah Pomerantz '22 worked in our group in summer 2021 as a senior undergraduate student in the Physics department (PHY) and a High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) intern. His work in our group focuses on using deep neural networks and traditional optimization methods to solve inverse problems in ice dynamics.
Elijah is from New Rochelle, New York. At Princeton, he is a member of the Clockwork Ultimate Frisbee team. Outside of school, he enjoys watching the Mets, going for walks, and cooking.
Students I mentored in Columbia University
Jay(Ji-Hyung) Ryu was a visiting MS student in 2020. She obtained master degree in Statistics in early 2021 at Columbia University. Jay obtained her undergraduate degree in Economics from Seoul National University, South Korea. She spent six years in Korean Reinsurance Company before Columbia University where she got interested in statistical analysis of natural disasters. As a visiting student, her research focused on applying supervised/unsupervised machine learning to detecting ice fractures in high-resolution satellite images of Antarctica. She’s now interested in contributing to scientific community with statistical methods.
Jay grew up in Seoul, Korea. She likes cooking, watercolor painting and reading. She also loves nature, especially walking in the woods!
Serena Yuan was a visiting MS student in 2020 and obtained her master degree in Statistics at Columbia University in 2021. Previously she obtained a bachelors of Mathematics and minor in Computer Science at New York University. She spent time working for startups in tech before studying Statistics. As a visiting student, she worked on physics-constrained neural networks applied to ice dynamics. This is based on newly developed methods that may leverage the laws of physics to extract quantitative information from flow visualizations. She hopes to explore applications of data science to the tech industry. In her free time, Serena likes golf, kayaking, and reading.
Russel Arbore worked as a summer intern at Lamont in 2020 when he was a rising senior student at Los Altos High School. During his internship at Lamont, he created a novel method of data augmentation for fractal patterns and applied it to segmentation of fracture patterns on high-resolution satellite images given only low-resolution images and labels.