Bio
I’m a climate scientist who studies how the land surface modifies the rest of the coupled Earth system. I am an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah, and am currently a Research Associate scientist at the Coldwater Lab/Centre for Hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan in Canmore, Alberta, Canada and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Utah. I completed my PhD in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington, in Seattle, WA, USA in 2019, where I worked with Prof. Abigail Swann in the EcoClimate Lab, and was a James S. McDonnell Foundation postdoctoral scholar in Dynamic and Multiscale systems working with Professors William Boos at the University of California, Berkeley, and Martyn Clark at the University of Saskatchewan’s Coldwater Lab.
I study how changes in the land can drive changes in the both the local atmosphere and the large-scale climate, by modulating fluxes of water and energy between the land and the atmosphere. I use models to test how individual land-surface properties modify energy and water fluxes to the atmosphere, and how those energy flux changes in turn impact atmospheric dynamics and climate, both locally and in regions far away from the initial land change. As part of my PhD work, I developed an idealized land surface model (the Simple Land Interface Model, SLIM) which couples to the Community Earth System Model and allows users to isolate the effect on the Earth system of changes in individual aspects of the land surface.
I am particularly interested in understanding where the atmosphere cares about changes in the land surface, and what particular properties of the land surface it is that the atmosphere cares about. In addition to my main area of research, I greatly enjoy interdisciplinary research collaborations on a wide range of topics, ranging from macrosystems ecology to the study of exoplanets.
My undergraduate education was completed in the Honours Mathematics program at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I started my studies at the University of Washington in 2013, during which time I completed an MSc in Atmospheric Sciences (2016), an MSc in Applied Mathematics (2018), and a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences (2019). In 2019 I started as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, supported by the Dynamic and Multiscale Systems postdoctoral fellowship from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, and in 2021 joined the Coldwater Lab and the Center for Hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan in Canmore, AB, Canada.
Publications and Full CV
Education
2019 – Ph.D in Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
2018 – MSc in Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
2016 – MSc in Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
2013 – BSc in Honours Mathematics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Academic Experience
2022-Present – Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
2022-Present – Research Associate, Coldwater Lab, Center for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan, Canmore, AB, Canada
2021-2022 – Postdoctoral Fellow, Coldwater Lab, Center for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan, Canmore, AB, Canada
2019-2020 – Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
2013-2019 – Graduate Research Assistant, University of Washington
Select Awards
2021 – James R. Holton Award, American Geophysical Union
2019-2022 – James S. McDonnell Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Dynamic and Multiscale Systems
2019 – Community Earth System Model Graduate Student Award
2018 – Andrew Slater Award, National Center for Atmospheric Research / Land Model Working Group
2016-2019 – National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postgraduate Studies Doctoral Fellowship
2017 – Husky 100 Award, University of Washington
2015 – Advanced Studies Program (ASP) Visiting Graduate Student Award, National Center for Atmospheric Research
2013-2014 – National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Alexander Graham Bell Canadian Graduate Studies Fellowship/Postgraduate Studies Fellowship
2009-2012 – Chancellor’s Scholarship, University of British Columbia
2010 – Trek Excellence Scholarship, University of British Columbia
2009 – President’s Scholarship, University of British Columbia
2008 – Premier’s Excellence Award, Government of British Columbia
Marysa Lague 