Minna Ho is an Early Career Fellow pursuing her PhD in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences department at UCLA advised by James C. McWilliams studying physical oceanography. She did her undergraduate at UCLA where she was an Undergraduate Research Scholar in the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge and participated in the UCI’s Water-PIRE UPP Down Under. She went on to complete her Master’s degree in Civil Engineering at UCLA advised by Timu Gallien. Following her Master’s, she worked at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) as a Scientist in the Biogeochemistry Department modeling the effects of anthropogenic coastal inputs on ocean acidification and hypoxia.
Her research uses numerical ocean modeling to understand the mechanisms controlling wastewater plume dispersal, fate and transport of wastewater discharge and its effect on eutrophication, small-scale modeling of the “gray zone” in which we partially resolve turbulent motions in the boundary layers, and coupling of nearshore physics with surface gravity waves and biogeochemical processes. Her work on modeling the effect of wastewater recycling and nutrient management on coastal eutrophication has been featured in the Los Angeles Times.
She has presented her research to inform management decisions to several stakeholders of SCCWRP, including the California State Water Resources Control Board, Ocean Protection Council, Los Angeles Sanitation District, Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, Orange County Sanitation District, and San Diego Public Utilities Department. She is a board member of the California Estuarine Research Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to the improvement of education and research regarding California’s and Baja California’s estuarine and coastal environments. She is also a board member of the Society for Gender Equity in Geosciences at UCLA, an organization to promote gender equity in the geophysical sciences through outreach, community building, institutional reform, and career development.
Her long-term interests include using ocean modeling to understand and predict the effects of human impacts on the ocean to guide coastal management, climate adaptation, and the intersection of communities and the coastline.
She is a Vietnamese American first-generation graduate student who grew up in Orange County, California.