Angélique Melet, young researcher from Mercator Ocean, has been awarded the 2016 Kostas Nittis Medal.
The Kostas Nittis Medal scheme was launched at the European Maritime Day 2015 by the European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella. The Kostas Nittis Medal applications are open to young marine professionals within the operational oceanography and broader ocean observing. The Medal is accompanied by a grant of € 3,000 to support the winner’s participation in international conferences and events. The awardee is thus given a chance to present their research or technology at relevant events, building a professional network, gaining real life experience, and reaching out to potential partners and/or employers.
“It is an honour to be awarded the Kostas Nittis Medal. The grant will give me a chance to present my research and activities at high-profile international conferences, and is an incentive to be more proactive in the oceanography community” said Angélique Melet, during the award ceremony on 25 May in Brussels, during a special session of the EuroGOOS General Assembly 2016, in front of over 50 representatives of 39 European ocean observing organizations from 19 countries.
Melet will use the grant to share her work on sea level spatial and temporal variability, notably comparing results given by ocean models and satellite altimetric data. She will present at the OSTST meeting in November 2016 in La Rochelle, France, and at the EGU General Assembly 2017 in Vienna, Austria.
Angélique Melet graduated in physical oceanography in Grenoble, France. Her doctoral work aimed at analysing the ocean circulations and their variability in the southwest Tropical Pacific, based on both high-resolution modelling, satellite and in-situ observations, and data assimilation. Motivated by learning more about the climatic role of the ocean, she then joined the NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) at Princeton University (USA). There, she participated to the development of parameterizations of ocean internal-wave driven mixing and studied the climatic impacts of these parameterizations in GFDL’s climate model. She decided to come back to France in 2014 to develop activities in LEGOS (Toulouse, France) on sea level variability and rise due to climate change to contribute and comprehend its impact on coastal regions. Angélique joined Mercator Ocean in November 2015, where she works on R&D activities in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS).
Some materials sourced from EuroGOOS