College position(s)
Fellow
Specialising in
Applied Mathematics, Scientific Computing, Ocean and Sea-Ice Modelling
Dr Siddhartha Bishnu
Degrees, Awards and Prizes
I hold a PhD in Computational Science (2021), an MS in Physical Oceanography (2017), and an MS in Applied and Computational Mathematics (2016) from Florida State University in the United States. I was awarded the UK Global Talent Visa (Exceptional Promise) endorsed by the Royal Society (2025–2030). Other honours include the Rokos Girton Research Fellowship (2025–2027), the Los Alamos National Laboratory Graduate Research Assistantship Award (2018–2021), membership in the Florida State University Fellows Society (2018–2021), selection as a NIUS Scholar by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education in Mumbai, and the INSPIRE Scholarship for Higher Education (2008–2012) awarded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
Research themes
My research lies at the intersection of applied mathematics, scientific computing, and climate modelling. I develop numerical methods and grid frameworks for simulating ocean and sea-ice dynamics, combining high-performance computing with open-source software development. My recent work at MIT focused on integrating a conformal cubed sphere grid into Oceananigans.jl, a modern GPU-optimised ocean model written in Julia, to enable aquaplanet and realistic global simulations. At the University of Cambridge, my current research focuses on ocean–ice interactions, turbulence and mixing parameterisations, and the implications of evolving sea-ice thickness for Arctic Ocean circulation.
Responsibilities
I am a Research Associate working with Dr Ali Mashayek in the Department of Earth Sciences and Dr Shawn Fitzgerald at the Centre for Climate Repair in the University of Cambridge. My work focuses on developing and testing numerical methods for high-resolution ocean and sea-ice models to investigate Arctic Ocean turbulence, ocean–ice interactions, and their impact on global and UK climate dynamics.
As the Rokos Girton Research Fellow in Climate Repair, I contribute to the College’s research community through interdisciplinary engagement on ocean–climate interactions and participate in College seminars and academic events.
Other
As Principal Investigator of an Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility Director’s Discretionary project, I was awarded 20,000 node hours on Frontier, the world’s first exascale supercomputer, to develop a modular verification suite for the multi-layer dynamical core of ocean circulation models.
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