Mr Marvin Alfaro

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Fulbright CSIRO Postgraduate Scholar

Media profile

“The interaction between the earth’s atmosphere and oceans is crucial to what happens to the earth’s climate, and we need to increase our understanding of these key systems.”

Mr Marvin Alfaro, who has just completed a BS in meteorology and mathematics at the University of Miami, is the 2011 winner of the Fulbright CSIRO Postgraduate Scholarship. Through his Fulbright Marvin will come to Australia for a year to study the impacts and implications of a particular ocean boundary within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the Antarctic Polar Front, on global climate change.

Marvin will work with the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales and the CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship.

“The atmosphere of the Southern Hemisphere, which generally has an average atmospheric circulation dominated by westerly winds that extend from Earth’s surface to the stratosphere, has undergone pronounced southward movement over the past few decades,” Marvin said.

“Remote sensing and observational analyses have demonstrated that these trends are dominated by the development of the stratospheric Antarctic ozone hole, with smaller but important contributions from increases in greenhouse gases. These observations suggest that human activity has demonstrably affected the climate of the Southern Hemisphere.”

Marvin will use satellite sea surface temperature measurements and take a scientific research cruise into the Southern Ocean to examine a possible shift of the Antarctic Polar Front over the past few decades and its relationship with changes in Southern Hemisphere westerly winds.

Marvin has recently graduated with a BS from the University of Miami. He has won various awards and prizes including an Honorary Certificate-University of Miami; a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, to study in the United Kingdom; and a National Science Foundation Computer Science and Mathematics for Scientist Scholarship. In addition to his studies, Marvin has participated in a Study Abroad Peer Mentor program at his university and is active in the Methodist church.