Quentin Nicolas

Ph.D. student, UC Berkeley

Email: qnicolas __at__ berkeley __dot__ edu
Github profile, Google scholar, CV

About

I am a 5th year PhD student in the department of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley, working with William Boos. My main research interest lies in climate dynamics, and most of my projects relate to the dynamics of the tropical atmosphere. My thesis work focuses on the organization of rainfall around mountains, termed orographic precipitation. I strive to develop simple theories to disentangle the complex physical processes behind this organization. These theories are then tested against various observations, as well as numerical simulations.

I am generally interested in any topic related to geophysical fluid dynamics, and I have had the chance to dip my toes in the world of the geodynamo, working with Bruce Buffett on wave generation in Earth's outer core. I am now also collaborating with Geoffrey Vallis, developing simple models to understand the physics of superrotation. I met Geoff during the Geophysical fluid dynamics summer program at WHOI, where I was a fellow in 2023.

Prior to joining Berkeley, I earned a MS in applied mathematics at Ecole polytechnique, just south of Paris, France. There, I had my first research experience developing mathematical models of the human liver with Irene Vignon-Clementel at Inria Paris.

Publications

Recent Presentations

Nice orographic cumuli (presumably forced by the background southwesterly wind) over Catalina island in November 2023