Fiamma Straneo is a Senior Scientist in the Physical Oceanography Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA. She studies the high latitude North Atlantic and Arctic oceans and their role in climate and climate variability on seasonal to multi-decadal timescales.
Her recent work has focused on the influence of climate on the Greenland Ice Sheet and, in particular, on understanding the causes behind the recent speed up and retreat of Greenland’s glaciers. She has led over a dozen field expeditions to the Arctic and Greenland that have employed icebreakers, local vessels, helicopters and snowmobiles. Straneo is chair of the Greenland Ice Sheet/Ocean Science Network (GRISO) and a member of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Science Team. She was awarded the Sverdrup Lecturer Award by the Ocean Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union in 2016. Straneo obtained her Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from the University of Washington, USA, following a Laurea cum Laude in Physics from the University of Milan, Italy. She teaches and advises students in the WHOI-MIT Joint Program in Oceanography.