In 1985 Amy Ffield held an undergraduate physics internship in semiconductors at Bellcore, the research group of the Baby Bells that was partitioned from Bell Labs with the breakup of AT&T. It was a wonderful experience, yet it also motivated the desire to have a scientific career closer to the tangible aspects of nature: the New Jersey building in which she worked as an intern, and that she had actually studied in an architecture class at Middlebury College, did not have any windows in offices or labs, with all windows placed along exterior-wall corridors. A few years later she began her career in physical oceanography as a graduate student at Columbia University residing at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory campus along the Hudson River in New York State. Early work included several Indonesian cruises specific to her doctoral dissertation on vertical mixing in the Indonesian Seas, as well as cruises near the California coast, in the South Atlantic, in the North Atlantic, and participation in the Ice Station Weddell on a floating ice camp with daily helicopter flights. After completing her Ph.D., Amy moved to Florida joining the oceanographic research institutions CIMAS of the University of Miami and AOML of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), participating as Chief Scientist on cruises in the Caribbean and in the Indian Ocean as part of the international WOCE program. Returning to Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in 1995, her research continued on quantifying processes and variability in the upper ocean that are essential to understanding the climate system and that are required to achieve climate predictability. Beginning in the fall of 2003, she joined ESR, a move that brings significant career flexibility and scientific autonomy.

Special Interests:Currently, physical oceanographic research in the Indonesian Seas and the western tropical Atlantic, with emphasis on quantifying processes and variability in the upper ocean that are essential to understanding the climate system and required to achieve climate predictability.

Education: