Drew Friedrichs
PhD Candidate, EIT
University of California - Davis
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Email: amfriedrichs@ucdavis.edu
Bio
My name is Drew Friedrichs and I am currently a PhD Candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Davis. I specialize in collecting direct observations of environmental fluid mechanics in natural and engineered surface water bodies. I have done extensive work at the poles as part of my PhD dissertation, which explores the intricacies of the heat transport that is driven by the introduction of glacial meltwater into the coastal ocean.
I also find it particularly rewarding to explore waterbodies much closer to home. You can often find me on Lake Tahoe either testing equipment or assisting in ongoing monitoring campaigns, or perhaps on Shasta Lake where I hope to assist in the investigation into warm water leakage into the Shasta Dam Temperature Control Device.
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I completed a Masters project quantifying upper ocean turbulence, and subsequently passed my Fundamentals of Engineering Exam. I aim to graduate from my PhD program in early 2024.
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In my free time, I enjoy running, watching sports (Go Cubs Go), and visiting every beach I can find.
My Latest Publication
Observations of submesoscale eddy-driven heat transport at an ice shelf calving front
My coauthors and I deployed an autonomous underwater glider near the Antarctic coastline in order to examine how rotational ocean currents affect the orientation of warm and cold layers of seawater. We found that a wind-forced eddy pulls warm water down from the surface while concurrently pulling cold water up from deep ocean. This phenomenon may have implications for local variations in Antarctic ice shelf melt.
Drew Friedrichs
University of California - Davis
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Email: amfriedrichs@ucdavis.edu
757-645-8479