Spotlight on Assistant Scientist, Viviane Vasconcellos de Menezes

Viviane Menezes is a sea-going and satellite oceanographer investigating the interplay between ocean circulation, salinity, and air-sea interaction. Her research focuses on the monsoon-dominated Indian Ocean (and its marginal seas) and the Southern Ocean. She is particularly interested in understanding the recent changes in Antarctic Bottom Water properties and the abyssal and deep circulations. In these poor-observed regions, new observations are critical, and her work aims to fill some of these gaps. Menezes received a BS in oceanography from Rio the Janeiro State University (UERJ) in 1996 and an MS in Remote Sensing from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in 1999, both in Brazil. After her MS degree, Menezes did not follow the usual academic path. She worked for more than ten years for the oil-gas offshore industry as a satellite oceanographer and a science and technology analyst in the Brazilian Navy. In 2015, she was awarded a Ph.D. in Marine Sciences by the CSIRO-University of Tasmania Joint Program in Hobart, Australia. She joined WHOI as a postdoctoral investigator in the Physical Oceanography Department in October 2015 and an Assistant Scientist in February 2021.