Bachelor of Science – 2003
What do you do for a living?
After graduation I worked at the Mystic Aquarium as an Exhibit Educator. From there I moved to San Diego and worked at SeaCamp San Diego as a marine science counselor. In 2006 I got a job at Scripps Institution of Oceanography working as a Marine Mechanician in the Instrument Development Group. I’ve been working here building the SOLO floats for 5 years. These floats are part of the Argo program;a massive network of floats, gathering information to get an accurate understanding of the changing state of the upper ocean and the patterns of ocean climate variability. It collects data from months to decades, including heat and freshwater storage and transport. This data is used to refine ocean and climate models for a wide variety of ocean analysis.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve done/learned in your marine sciences career?
Nothing ever goes as planned. Instruments fail at the last minute, schedules change, test fixtures break. You should be flexible and ingenious; always be ready to adapt to these changes and have backup plans.
What aspect(s) of the UConn Marine Sciences Program uniquely prepared you for your success?
At Uconn, I had the opportunity to participate in the summer undergraduate research program. This program really exposed me to what it was like to work in a lab and in the field. We collected samples in local watersheds and analyzed them in the lab. It was easier to understand concepts we learned in the classroom, because I was seeing them first hand in the field.
For more information on where Callie works and what she does………..