Leonel Romero

(Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography) Assistant Professor of Marine Sciences

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My research combines field observations and numerical modeling to study air-sea interaction, upper-ocean processes, ocean waves, and coastal processes. One of my main objectives is to improve the understanding of wave breaking and its impacts on air-sea fluxes. Other research interests include the transport and dispersion of tracers near the ocean surface, wave-current interactions, and CO₂ air-sea exchange.

Courses Taught

MARN 5064 – Air-Sea Interaction (offered every other spring semester)

Three credits. Processes controlling the exchange of momentum, heat, and mass across the air-sea interface. Topics include atmospheric and oceanic stratification, wind-wave-current interaction, wave breaking, bubble generation, heat budgets, flux parameterizations, and instrumentation.

MARN 3001 – Foundations of Marine Sciences (offered every fall semester)

Four credits. Physical, biological, chemical, and geological structure and function of coastal marine systems, with a special focus on field observations in three important coastal habitats: beaches, marshes, and estuaries.

Research Projects

Directional Phase-Resolved Broadband Observations of Breaking Waves (PI Romero) – National Science Foundation

Spray-mediated air-sea gas exchange of carbon dioxide in high winds (PIs Vlahos and Romero) – National Science Foundation

Modulation of bubble mediated gas transfer due to wave-current interactions (PI Romero) – National Science Foundation

Graduate Students

Bernard Akaawase – Ph.D.

Paban Bhuyan – Ph.D.

Undergraduate Students

Jeremy Hurt (2022)

Jessie Steadman (2023)

Postdoctoral Scholars

Youngmi Shin (2021-2022)

 

Publications

Google Scholar
ResearchGate