Sam Maticka joined JCSDA in March 2023 as a Computational Scientist on the OBS (observations) team. She works on the integration of observational data into the data assimilation system, where she applies her background of ocean fluid mechanics and scrappiness with data and computer sciences.

Sam completed her PhD at Stanford in Environmental Fluid Mechanics (Civil Engineering), where she studied the governing physics and thermal dynamics in coral reef lagoons through field experiments and applied math. During the PhD she was a visiting researcher at University of Western Australia for vessel-based experiments.

Interested in the intersection of data science and earth sciences, she worked at Airbus’ research division (Acubed) as a Data Scientist on weather reanalysis after her PhD. Then, searching for that euro-lifestyle, she tested the waters in France doing a postdoc configuring a hydrodynamic model (computational fluid dynamics) of a reef lagoon.

In her spare time she enjoys outdoor activities (primarily rock climbing and trail running), experimenting in the kitchen, and nature. Originally from Florida, she is a foreigner to snow and will try this thing called ‘skiing’ that everyone seems so jazzed about.