Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs

Education

• B.A., Middlebury College
• M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• Ph.D., Old Dominion University

About

My interdisciplinary research program focuses on understanding and predicting how climate change, human activities, and management decisions affect water quality and ecosystem health in coastal and estuarine systems. My research combines numerical models with satellite observations, long-term monitoring data, and emerging machine learning approaches to investigate the physical, biological, and chemical processes that influence hypoxia, acidification, harmful algal blooms, and fish habitat.

A major focus of my current work is leading the development of the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Forecast System (CBEFS), which provides daily forecasts of water quality and environmental conditions throughout the Chesapeake Bay. These forecasts include dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, pH, harmful algal bloom risk, and other variables relevant to fisheries, aquaculture, and coastal resource management. This work is also part of VIMS' broader Center of Excellence in Environmental Forecasting (CEEF), which advances the development and application of environmental forecasting tools to support coastal communities and decision-making.

My broader research interests include climate and land-use impacts on coastal ecosystems, coupled hydrodynamic–biogeochemical modeling, satellite remote sensing, model evaluation, and interdisciplinary model intercomparison studies. More information about my research group is available on the BioCOM lab website.

I was named William & Mary's University Professor for Research Excellence in 2024 and was selected to deliver the American Geophysical Union's 2024 Rachel Carson Lecture.