Henri F. Drake
Assistant Professor, Department of Earth System Science (ESS), UC Irvine
Biography
Henri F. Drake is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine, a position he has held since 2023. He completed his Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography through the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in 2021, focusing on the control of the abyssal ocean overturning circulation by mixing-driven bottom boundary layers. Prior to joining UC Irvine, Drake was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the NOAA Climate & Global Change Program from 2021 to 2023, hosted by Sonya Legg at Princeton University and NOAA GFDL.
Drake's research is centered on ocean circulation and its implications for climate dynamics. He has contributed to numerous studies, including those published in leading journals like Nature and the Journal of Physical Oceanography. His work involves diagnosing water mass budgets and exploring the dynamics of eddying abyssal mixing layers. Drake has been recognized as a NASA Early Career Investigator and has secured funding for projects on marine heatwaves and their impacts. He is actively involved in the scientific community, presenting at conferences such as the Ocean Sciences Meeting and the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
At UC Irvine, Drake is responsible for teaching courses such as Introduction to Environmental Data Science and Physical Oceanography. He is involved in curriculum development, incorporating modern teaching practices into his courses. Drake mentors doctoral students and serves on several academic committees, contributing to both graduate and undergraduate education within the department. He also engages in outreach activities, including science communication and K-12 education, to promote public understanding of ocean and climate science.
Return to topDegrees
- Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography, MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, 2021
- B.S. in Mathematics, Haverford College, 2015
Distinctions
- NASA Early Career Investigator, 2024
- NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2021
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2017
- MIT Rosenblith Presidential Fellowship, 2016
Areas of Expertise
- Physical Oceanography
- Abyssal Ocean Overturning Circulation
- Submesoscale Baroclinic Instability
- Hydraulic Control of Ocean Flow
- Water Mass Budgets
- Marine Heatwaves
- Diapycnal Upwelling
- Climate Mitigation Science
- Climate Model Projections
- Ocean Mixing Dynamics
Recent Publications
- Le Boyer A., Couto N., Alford M.H., Drake H.F., Bluteau C.E., Hughes K.G., Naveira Garabato A.C., Moulin A.J., Peacock T., Fine E.C., Mashayek A., Cimoli L., Meredith M.P., Melet A., Fer I., Dengler M., Stevens C.L., “Corrigendum: Turbulent diapycnal fluxes as a pilot Essential Ocean Variable(Front. Mar. Sci., (2023), 10, (1241023), 10.3389/fmars.2023.1241023)”, Frontiers in Marine Science, vol. 11, 2024.
- Le Boyer, A., Couto, N., Alford, M. H., Drake, H. F., Bluteau, C. E., Hughes, K. G., Naveira Garabato, A. C., Moulin, A. J., Peacock, T., Fine, E. C., Mashayek, A., Cimoli, L., Meredith, M. P., Melet, A., Fer, I., Dengler, M., Stevens, C. L., “Turbulent diapycnal fluxes as a pilot Essential Ocean Variable”, Frontiers in Marine Science, vol. 10, 2023.
- Drake, H. F., Rivest, R. L., Deutch, J., Edelman, A., “A simple model for assessing climate control trade-offs and responding to unanticipated climate outcomes”, Environmental Research Letters, 2021.
- Drake, H. F., “Control of the Abyssal Ocean Overturning Circulation by Mixing-Driven Bottom Boundary Layers”, 2021. Thesis submitted to MIT/WHOI,
- Drake, H. F., “Eight ways to support women in science”, EOS, 2019.
- Tamsitt V., Drake H.F., Morrison A.K., Talley L.D., Dufour C.O., Gray A.R., Griffies S.M., Mazloff M.R., Sarmiento J.L., Wang J., Weijer W., “Erratum: Author Correction: Spiraling pathways of global deep waters to the surface of the Southern Ocean (Nature communications (2017) 8 1 (172))”, Nature communications, vol. 9, pp. 209, 2018.
Most Cited Publications
- van Sebille, E., Griffies, S. M., Abernathey, R., Adams, T. P., Berloff, P., Biastoch, A., Blanke, B., Chassignet, E. P., Yu Cheng, Y., Cotter, C. J., Deleersnijder, E., Döös, K., Drake, H. F., Drijfhout, S., Gary, S. F., Heemink, A. W., Kjellsson, J., Koszalka, I. M., Lange, M., Lique, C., MacGilchrist, G. A., Marsh, R., Adame, C. G. M., McAdam, R., Nencioli, F., Paris, C. B., Piggott, M. D., Polton, J. A., Rühs, S., Shah, S. H. A. M., Thomas, M. D., Wang, J., Wolfram, P. J., Zanna, L., Zika, J. D., “Lagrangian ocean analysis: fundamentals and practices”, Ocean modeling, vol. 121, pp. 49-75, 2018.
- Tamsitt, V., Drake, H. F., Morrison, A. K., Talley, L. D., Dufour, C. A., Gray, A. R., Griffies, S. M., Mazloff, M. R., Sarmiento, J. L., Wang, J., Weijer, W., “Spiraling up: pathways of global deep water to the surface of the Southern Ocean”, Nature Communications, vol. 8, pp. 172, 2017.
- Hausfather, Z., Drake, H. F., Abbott, T., Schmidt, G. A., “Evaluating the performance of past climate model projections”, Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 46, 2020.
- Drake, H. F., Ferrari, R., Callies, J., “Abyssal circulation driven by near-boundary mixing: water mass transformations and interior stratification”, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 2020.
- Drake, H. F., Morrison, A. K., Griffies, S. M., Sarmiento, J. L., Weijer, W., Gray, A. R., “Lagrangian timescales of Southern Ocean upwelling in a hierarchy of model resolutions”, Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 45, 2018.
- Brady, R. X., Maltrud, M. E., Wolfram, P. J., Drake, H. F., Lovenduski, N. C., “The influence of ocean topography on the upwelling of carbon in the Southern Ocean”, Geophysical Research Letters, 2021.
- Drake, H. F., Henderson, G., “A defense of usable climate mitigation science: how science can contribute to social movements”, Climatic Change, vol. 172-10, 2022.
- Wynne-Cattanach, B.L., Couto, N., Drake, H.F., Ferrari, R., Le Boyer, A., Mercier, H., Messias, M.J., Ruan, X., Spingys, C.P., van Haren, H., Voet, G., Polzin, K., Naveira Garabato, A.C., Alford, M.H., “Observations of diapycnal upwelling within a sloping submarine canyon”, Nature, vol. 630, pp. 884–890, 2024.
- Drake, H. F., Ruan, X., Callies, J., Ogden, K., Thurnherr, A., Ferrari, R., “Dynamics of eddying abyssal mixing layers over rough topography”, Journal of Physical Oceanography, vol. 52-12, pp. 3199-3219, 2022.
- Drake, H. F., Ruan, X., Ferrari, R., “Diapycnal displacement, diffusion, and distortion of tracers in the ocean”, Journal of Physical Oceanography, vol. 52-12, pp. 3221-3240, 2022.
Contact Information
Email: hfdrake@uci.edu
Address: 3212 Croul Hall, Irvine, CA. 92697-3100
Return to topThis profile was last updated on 2/12/2025.