Born and raised in South Korea, I finished high school at the Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies with the Global Leader Certificate. I then moved to Austin, TX to attend the University of Texas at Austin (UT), where I received my B.S. in General Geology with Special Honors in Geological Sciences and B.A. in Music. During my time at UT, I gained valuable research experience in a paleogeochemistry lab, learning the basics of wet chemistry and soil sample processing.
I then started my doctoral studies with Dr. Holly Michael at the University of Delaware. Leveraging my experience with geochemistry, I led projects to understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of beach reactions controlled by the mixing between fresh groundwater and saline seawater. I led several field campaigns, laboratory experiments, and modeling studies. You can view the details of my projects here and the resulting publications here.
As of September 2019, I have taken a position at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow. Expanding upon my groundwater modeling expertise, I have ventured into the world of remote sensing. I am currently focusing on comparing groundwater storage measurements from GRACE (and GRACE-FO), InSAR-measured subsidence, and numerically-modeled groundwater depletion / subsidence in the Central Valley of California.
