Meet Becca Beutel - Physical Oceanographer

Becca Beutel is a MSc student in Physical Oceanography at UBC, working with Dr. Susan Allen in the Mesoscale Ocean and Atmospheric Dynamics research group. She is looking into which water masses make up the flow into and out of the Salish Sea (the body of water between Vancouver Island and the BC and Washington Mainland) by applying water parcel tracking simulations to two ocean models. Knowing more about where the water is coming from, and how this changes throughout a year and between years, will help us figure out how this ecologically and economically important region will be impacted by a changing climate and help us figure out what we can do to protect it!

Becca completed her bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering at the University of Guelph, and did 20 months of coop throughout it to best narrow down what area she wanted to work in. She is passionate about lifelong learning and thinks that research is the ideal setting to achieve this!