Melanie Feen Email & Phone Number

United States

Rhode Island, United States

Narragansett, Ri

NASA Earth and Space Sciences Fellow, Master's in Oceanography (Aug 2020). Master's Thesis: Correcting underwater chlorophyll fluorescence observations from physiological trends and patterns on a diurnal timescale. Research contributed to a large-scale, collaborative research program, EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS). The overarching goal of this program is to quantify the contribution of ocean biology to export of carbon from the surface to the deep ocean. In order to achieve this goal, I analyze high-resolution physical and bio-optical data in MATLAB from underwater robots.

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Mapped coastal bathymetric sediment along the Keewenaw Shoreline in Lake Superior, MI to trace the transport of toxic Stamp Sands mining waste through a change detection analysis with airborne LiDAR imagery. This experience developed my geospatial analytic skills, including image analysis in ArcGIS, and QGIS. I also evaluated the accuracy and precision of Reach Real-Time Kinematic GPS devices.

Nasa Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Ca

As a participant in the NASA DEVELOP National Program, I collaborated on a team researching Elkhorn's Slough loss of its marshland extent and stress to vegetation due to threats of rising sea levels and climatic variation. We used Landsat imagery to detect growth and loss within the slough and map the slough's evolution across time and space following large El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) years. In addition, this study integrated Sentinel-2 and Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) to compare current day marsh extent and health with in situ data provided by Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (ESNERR). We also used the Marsh Equilibrium Model (MEM) to predict the Elkhorn Slough's resilience and adaptation to suspended sediment variations and sea level rise scenarios. Collectively, our study provided spatial and temporal insights into Elkhorn Slough's ecological feedbacks to inform our partners at ESNERR of Elkhorn Slough's condition.

I helped implement a calibration of a dissolved oxygen sensor on an underwater, profiling glider using air oxygen measurements to remove sensor drift. Through this project I broadened my data analysis skills developing code in MATLAB to analyze glider observations.

Undergraduate oceanography research studying net community production using dissolved oxygen data collected by optodes on autonomous profiling floats deployed in the Sargasso Sea. I recently worked on calibrating an oxygen sensor to bottle sample oxygen data from the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series study using MATLAB and conducted laboratory experiments to test how particle properties and composition affect light attenuation to calibrate a transmissometer, an optical sensor used for estimating carbon proxies,

Biochemistry research on asparaginyl t-RNA synthesis in Borellia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. I researched in this lab during my first year spring semester until my spring semester second year at Skidmore College. I also participated in the Skidmore Student Faculty Summer Research Program as a Schupf Scholar during the summer prior to my second year at Skidmore.Poster presentations at the at the 1st Annual Sigma-Aldrich Symposium on RNA Science and its Applications, RNA Institute, Albany NY (Jan. 2014) and at the Upstate New York Undergraduate Research Conference, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY (Sept. 2013).

Oceanography

Activities and Societies: Bay Informed Discussion Series: - Collaborate on a student led team to lead, organize and advertise a monthly.

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Geosciences Major And Chemistry Minor

Activities and Societies: Geoscience Club

Education record

I studied abroad in New Zealand as part of the Frontiers Abroad Earth Systems Program. Prior to the semester, I participated.