Ajit Subramaniam

Ajit Subramaniam is a Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and is an oceanographer with expertise in biogeochemical cycles, remote sensing, bio-optics, and phytoplankton physiology. He is interested in advancing our ability to observe the ocean and expand our understanding how the marine ecosystem works and can be managed. He has served as the Program Director for the Marine Microbiology Initiative at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and a Program Director in the Biological Oceanography Program at the U.S. National Science Foundation. He has worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Services Center in Charleston, SC, the University of Maryland in College Park, and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Ajit earned his Ph.D. in Coastal Oceanography and M.S. in Marine Environmental Science from SUNY, Stony Brook.  He has a Bachelors degree in Physics from The American College in India.

Fields of Interest

Ocean observation technology, Autonomous sensors, Land-Ocean biogeochemical cycles, Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms

Education

  • Ph.D. in Coastal Oceanography. December, 1995
  • M.S. in Marine Environmental Science. August, 1989
  • B.Sc. (Special) in Physics. May, 1984

Honors & Awards

  • ASLO Sustaning Fellow (2024)
  • Climate & Life Fellow (2021-2023)
  • Re-elected to the Board of Association of Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) as Member-at-Large (2021-2024)
  • Elected to the Board of Association of Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) as Member-at-Large (2018-2021)
  • Mercator Fellowship University of Rostock/Baltic Sea Research Institute (2017)
  • National Science Foundation Director’s Award for Collaborative Integration (2010)
  • Fulbright Senior Specialist Award (2010)
  • NASA Graduate Fellowship in Global Change Research (1992-1995)

Charvet, S., E. Kim, A. Subramaniam, J. Montoya and S. Duhamel (2021). "Small pigmented eukaryote assemblages of the western tropical North Atlantic around the Amazon River plume during spring discharge." Sci Rep 11(1): 16200.  10.1038/s41598-021-95676-2

Weber, S. C., N. Loick‐Wilde, J. P. Montoya, M. Bach, H. Doan‐Nhu, A. Subramaniam, I. Liskow, L. Nguyen‐Ngoc, D. Wodarg and M. Voss (2021). "Environmental Regulation of the Nitrogen Supply, Mean Trophic Position, and Trophic Enrichment of Mesozooplankton in the Mekong River Plume and Southern South China Sea." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 126(8).  10.1029/2020jc017110

Hauser, D. D. W., A. V. Whiting, A. R. Mahoney, J. Goodwin, C. Harris, R. J. Schaeffer, R. Schaeffer, N. J. M. Laxague, A. Subramaniam, C. R. Witte, S. Betcher, J. M. Lindsay and C. J. Zappa (2021). "Co-production of knowledge reveals loss of Indigenous hunting opportunities in the face of accelerating Arctic climate change." Environmental Research Letters 16(9).  10.1088/1748-9326/ac1a36

Witte, C. R., C. J. Zappa, A. R. Mahoney, J. Goodwin, C. Harris, R. E. Schaeffer, R. Schaeffer, S. Betcher, D. D. W. Hauser, N. J. M. Laxague, J. M. Lindsay, A. Subramaniam, K. E. Turner and A. Whiting (2021). "The Winter Heat Budget of Sea Ice in Kotzebue Sound: Residual Ocean Heat and the Seasonal Roles of River Outflow." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.  10.1029/2020jc016784

Mahoney, A. R., K. E. Turner, D. D. W. Hauser, N. J. M. Laxague, J. M. Lindsay, A. V. Whiting, C. R. Witte, J. Goodwin, C. Harris, R. J. Schaeffer, R. Schaeffer, S. Betcher, A. Subramaniam and C. J. Zappa (2021). "Thin ice, deep snow and surface flooding in Kotzebue Sound: landfast ice mass balance during two anomalously warm winters and implications for marine mammals and subsistence hunting." Journal of Glaciology: 1-15.  10.1017/jog.2021.49

*Stock, A. and A. Subramaniam (2020) Accuracy of empirical satellite algorithms for mapping phytoplankton diagnostic pigments in the open ocean: A supervised learning perspective.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00599

*Stock, A., A. Subramaniam, G. L. Van Dijken, L. M. Wedding, K. R. Arrigo, M. M. Mills, M. A. Cameron and F. Micheli (2020). "Comparison of Cloud-Filling Algorithms for Marine Satellite Data." Remote Sensing 12(20).  10.3390/rs12203313

Zappa, C. J., S. M. Brown, N. J. M. Laxague, T. Dhakal, R. A. Harris, A. M. Farber and A. Subramaniam (2020). "Using Ship-Deployed High-Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for the Study of Ocean Surface and Atmospheric Boundary Layer Processes." Frontiers in Marine Science 6.  10.3389/fmars.2019.00777

*Weber, S. C., A. Subramaniam, J. P. Montoya, H. Doan-Nhu, L. Nguyen-Ngoc, J. W. Dippner and M. Voss (2019). "Habitat delineation in highly variable marine environments." Frontiers in Marine Science. 6:112. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00112

Cardona, Y., A. Bracco, T.A. Villareal, A. Subramaniam, S.C. Weber, J.P. Montoya. (2016) Highly variable nutrient concentrations in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.  Deep Sea Research II. 129, 20–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2016.04.010