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People

Pictures and bios for members of the BioCOM lab
Marjorie Friedrichs is currently the 2024 University Professor for Research Excellence at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science.. She received a B.A. in Physics from Middlebury College in 1989, a M.S. in Oceanography from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from Old Dominion University (ODU) in 1999. After a two-year post-doctoral position at ODU, she became a faculty member in the Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences for 5 years before moving to the faculty at VIMS. Here she leads the BioCOM lab, which focuses on using coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical 3-D models together with long-term monitoring data to better understand how human impacts, such as excess nutrients and global climate change, affect coastal water quality. She has also led the development of the CBEFS forecasting system, and an annual hypoxia report card to track progress towards attaining water quality standards in the Chesapeake Bay. Through her ongoing collaborative work with Chesapeake Bay Program managers as well as fisheries and aquaculture industry members, she continues to work to make her science relevant for Chesapeake Bay stakeholders.
Pierre St-Laurent is a research scientist within the Coastal & Ocean Processes (COP) section of VIMS. He received a B.Sc. in Physics from Université Laval in 2003, a M.Sc. and then a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Université du Québec in 2010. He worked in a post-doctoral position at Old Dominion University and at VIMS before becoming research scientist at VIMS in 2016. His current work focuses on modeling the biogeochemistry of the Mid-Atlantic Bight, Chesapeake Bay and Antarctic regions in order to forecast marine environmental conditions as well as improve our understanding of marine ecosystems.
horemans_dante_300.jpg Dante Horemans is a Research Scientist specializing in ecological forecasting and modeling the dynamics of estuarine and coastal systems. He received a B.A. and M.S. in Physics from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, reflecting a strongly interdisciplinary training across the physical and biogeochemical sciences. After completing his Ph.D., he worked as a postdoctoral researcher for three years before becoming a Research Scientist at VIMS. His work integrates laboratory, field, and remote sensing satellite data with hybrid numerical modeling approaches that combine process-based models and machine learning to identify driving factors, feedback mechanisms, and improve predictive capacity. Much of his research at VIMS has focused on forecasting harmful algal blooms in the Chesapeake Bay. These efforts support daily forecasts of Prorocentrum minimum and other harmful algal bloom species of stakeholders' concern, now accessible through the operational Chesapeake Bay Environmental Forecasting System.
Colin_headshot Colin Hawes (Ph.D. Student) graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2020 with a B.S. in Physics and a minor in Environmental Science. While at Ohio Wesleyan, Colin volunteered with Dr. Amy Downing to study zooplankton mesocosms under varying salt concentrations. The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of road salt runoff on freshwater ecosystems. In the summer of 2019, he received an NSF funded REU internship. With Dr. Haring-Kaye, Colin studied lifetimes of the radioisotope Arsenic-74. This research was conducted between Ohio Wesleyan and Florida State University. He presented this research in a poster session at the 2019 fall meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society in Crystal City, Virginia. He continued to study Arsenic-74 for his senior research, confirming multiple new energy states and transitions in the Arsenic-74 level scheme. During Colin's senior year, he also developed an interest, under the guidance of Dr. Sean Kay, in science communication and environmental policy.
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Alexa Labossiere (Ph.D. Candidate) graduated from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 2022 with a B.S. in Environmental Science and minors in Applied Statistics, Marine Science, and Mathematics. In the summer of 2021, Alexa did an REU internship at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium where she used satellite data to study changes in terrestrial and marine productivity in Arctic watersheds. She started at VIMS in 2022 and has worked on all things (inorganic) carbon! Alexa uses models of the Chesapeake Bay to study estuarine inorganic carbon and alkalinity, specifically impacts from tropical cyclones and macrobiota like salt marshes, bivalves, and seagrasses as well as marine carbon dioxide removal strategies such as ocean alkalinity enhancement. 
Headshot of Peichen Peichen Huang (M.S. Student) graduated from Nanjing University in China with a bachelor’s degree in Geography in 2025. During his undergraduate studies, he worked under the supervision of Professor Qian Yu, focusing on the seasonal variation patterns of principal tidal constituents and their underlying mechanisms in shallow shelf regions. His first-author publication in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science demonstrated how seawater stratification and astronomical factors drive the annual cycle of tidal constituents in the European North Sea and adjacent Chinese seas. In 2023, he also participated in a summer workshop at the University of Washington, where he examined tidal and sea-level variations in Puget Sound. Peichen’s research interests center on coastal ocean dynamics, particularly the use of numerical and modeling approaches to uncover underlying mechanisms. At VIMS, he will integrate these interests into biogeochemical modeling, with an emphasis on applying machine learning and remote sensing data to improve the accuracy of mechanistic models. 

Alumni of the BioCOM lab: 

  • Ms. Olivia Szot (M.S. '25)
    • Research Compliance Administrator at Old Dominion University Research Foundation - Norfolk, VA
  • Dr. Dante Horemans (post-doc 2022-2025) 
    • Assistant Research Scientist at VIMS
  • Mr. Colin Hawes (M.S. '24)
    • Ph.D. Student at VIMS 
  • Ms. Catherine Czajka (M.S. '24)
    • Lab Specialist at University of Virginia - Charlottesville, VA
  • Dr. Fei Da (M.S. '18, Ph.D. '23)
    • Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University/ NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory – Princeton, NJ
  • Dr. Kyle Hinson (Ph.D. '23)
    • Postdoctoral Research Associate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory - Richland, WA
  • Mr. Luke Frankel (M.S. '21)
    • Project Scientist II at FB Environmental - Dover, NH
  • Dr. Jessie Turner (Ph.D. '21)
    • Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University - Norfolk, VA
  • Dr. Kelsey Fall (M.S. '12; Ph.D. '20)
    • Engineer at U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory - Vicksburg, MS 
  • Dr. Danny Kaufman (Ph.D. '17; post-doc, 2017)
    • Lead Scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton - Silver Spring, MD
  • Dr. Julia Moriarty (Ph.D. '17)
    • Assistant Professor of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder - Boulder, CO 
  • Dr. Ike Irby (Ph.D. '17)
    • Policy and Political Consultant - Washington, D.C.
  • Dr. Yongjin Xiao (Ph.D. '14)
    • Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning at DoorDash - Houston, TX
  • Dr. Yang Feng (post-doc, 2011-2015)
    • Research Scientist at the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology - Guangzhou, China
  • Dr. Aaron Bever (post-doc, 2010-2011)
    • Senior Managing Scientist at Anchor QEA - San Francisco, CA
  • Dr. Jianhong Xue (post-doc, 2008-2011)
    • Research Associate at the Marine Science Institute of the University of Texas at Austin - Port Aransas, TX
  • Dr. Vincent Saba (post-doc, 2007-2010)
    • Research Fishery Biologist at the Ecosystem Dynamics and Assessment Branch of NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory - Princeton, NJ