Fiamma Straneo
Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Fiamma’s research focuses on the climate of the polar regions, including ocean, ice sheets and sea-ice.
Fiamma Straneo joined Harvard University in 2024 as a Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Environmental Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on the climate of the polar regions, including ocean, ice sheets and sea-ice. Much of her group’s efforts are aimed at obtaining data from the undersampled polar regions, using platforms that range from icebreakers to kayaks to autonomous vehicles, and in using these data to advance understanding of polar climate change and its implications for Arctic and global communities.
Additional interests include: sea level rise, ice-ocean interaction, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, systems description of climate/marine environments, partnership with local (Arctic) communities to build on traditional knowledge and enable community based-monitoring, low or no-emission approaches to collect ocean data, climate and polar science communication, FAIR Data and promoting collaborative science by diverse teams. Prior to moving to Harvard, Straneo was a Professor of Polar Science at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California San Diego (2017-2024) and Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (2001-2017).
Contact Information
fstraneo@seas.harvard.edu