Student Blogs & Vignettes
Logan Dudney
Logan Dudney, USF CMS master's student
About my research
I am a master鈥檚 student in the Ocean Circulation Lab with Yonggang Liu. During my undergraduate years, I took a course in chemical and physical oceanography, and I made sure to TA for it every semester until I graduated. I was also an applied mathematics major, so I really enjoyed combining marine science and math into physical oceanography. I have always enjoyed using statistics and data analysis and will use these interests in my thesis. My project is using water velocity data from Ocean Circulation Lab mooring buoys and using it to validate a hypothesis about Loop Current forcing along the western Florida shelf. If that hypothesis holds true, then I hope to use this data to better predict K. brevis blooms (red tide) as well as hurricane intensification.
Why USF CMS?
During my undergraduate years at Eckerd College, my chemical and physical oceanography professor informed me that a professor at USF was looking for a student who was interested in both math and marine science for an internship. I interned in the Ocean Circulation Lab from January of 2023 until I graduated in May of 2024. It was during this internship that I saw a glimpse of some of the amazing work that occurs at CMS. I wanted to be a part of that world-changing research. After taking a gap year, I joined Dr. Yonggang Liu again to get my master鈥檚. Being able to stay in St. Petersburg, working on research vessels at Florida Institute of Oceanography, and being so close to the water are also nice bonuses.