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Biography

Tessa received a Bachelor of Science in Physics and graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Hampshire in 2012. She has worked with Assistant Professor Jan Lenaerts since 2017 as part of the NASA Sea Level Team, investigating the sea level contribution of ice sheets to past, present and future sea level rise. Her first paper, Scoring Antarctic surface mass balance in climate models to refine future projections (published in 2020 with Prof. Lenaerts and Dr. Brooke Medley), looked at the impact of surface processes on Antarctica on projected global sea level rise estimates using the CMIP5 and CMIP6 suites. Her current aim is to investigate the role of Antarctic melt on Southern Ocean dynamics, sea ice, and other ocean biogeochemical processes leveraging both climate models and observations.

In addition to her research, she is also active in outreach efforts - particularly science communication and education - as well as mentorship, professional development, and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts such as the ATOC REU program and prospective student committee. She also is actively interested in the nexus of climate science and industry with a focus on making science more accessible to those with direct impacts on climate action.

Unlike Jan, she doesn't have much free time. More seriously, though, she spends what free time she has hiking, gardening, and playing with her dogs.