Matthias Morzfeld
Associate Professor
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego
matti [at] ucsd [dot] edu
My research interests are, broadly: interdisciplinary mathematical/stochastic modeling, data assimilation, Monte Carlo sampling, reduced
order modeling. Specifically: numerical methods for data assimilation and inverse problems – importance/implicit sampling, Markov chain Monte
Carlo, variational methods, Kalman filters.
I create new mathematics and computational tools and work towards their successful application across the Earth sciences. A main theme of my work is how sampling methods can function (or not) in high-dimensional spaces.
Here is a Harle-MCMC shake video that illustrates what an accelerated convergence can get you (watch with sound on). The corresponding papers are here (theory) and here (practice).
I am a faculty mentor for the Math Alliance, a nationwide effort to make sure that every student from an under represented or underserved community with an interest in mathematics has the opportunity and the necessary tools to earn a doctoral degree. You can write to me directly about opportunities within Math Alliance or go to my mentor page.
Please download my publications here.
Teaching at SIO
- Every Fall: Geophysical data analysis (SIOG223a).
- Every other WinterFall: Computational Inverse Problems (SIOG235).
- Every other Spring: Computational Tools and Data Science in Geophysics (SIO112).
- Every Spring: Physics of Surfing (SIO87).
Teaching at the University of Arizona
- Fall 2018: Calculus II (Math129), Website.
- Spring 2018: Data assimilation and inverse problems, part II, Website.
- Fall 2017: Data assimilation and inverse problems, Website.
- Spring 2017: Applied Linear Algebra (Math310), Website.
- Fall 2016: Linear Algebra(Math313), Website.
- Spring 2016: Calculus II (Math129), Website.
- Fall 2015: Calculus I (Math125), Website.
Teaching at the University of California at Berkeley
- Spring 2014: Numerical Analysis (Math128b), Website.
Please download my CV here.
Graduate students
Kyle Ivey (co-advised with Steve Constable).
Eliana Vargas Huitzil (co-advised with Steve Constable).
Alumni (graduate)
Kyle Gwirtz, SIO. Dissertation: Computational tools for estimating and predicting the state of the geodynamo. Position after graduation: NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Jordan Pillow (2021), Applied Mathematics, U of Arizona. Dissertation: Bayesian spatially varying multi-regularization image deblurring. Position after graduation: Postdoc at NNSS.
Travis Harty (2020), Applied Mathematics, U of Arizona. Dissertation: Data assimilation and applications in forecasting. Position after graduation: Scientist at Worldview.
Spencer Lunderman (2020), Mathematics, U of Arizona. Dissertation: Feature-based parameter estimation of the nonlinear cloud and rain equation and global Bayesian optimization in data assimilation. Position after graduation: finance (declined JPL postdoc).
Jesse Adams (2019), Applied Mathematics, U of Arizona. Co-advised with Aaron Luttman (NNSS). Dissertation: Scalable block Gibbs sampling for image deblurring in X-ray radiography. Position after graduation: Postdoc at NNSS.
Andrew Leach, Applied Mathematics, U of Arizona. Co-advised with Kevin Lin. Dissertation: Monte Carlo methods for stochastic differential equations and their applications. Position after graduation: Google, Machine Learning Engineer.
Antonio Lorenzo, Optical sciences, U of Arizona. Co-advised with Alex Cronin. Dissertation: Short-term irradiance forecasting using an irradiance sensor network, satellite imagery, and data assimilation. Position after graduation: Research Scientist at the University of Arizona.
Alumni (postdoc)
Dani Blatter. Next job: Postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Will Davis. Next job: AI/ML Engineer at Terra AI.
Alumni (undergraduate)
Jordan Spencer (Geopaths 2024).
Allison Hildago, Math and Computer Science (JT-SURF 2023).
Cheyenne Ward, Math and Computer Science (2023).
Travis Davis, Computer Science (2020-2022).
Savannah Rae Armstrong, Engineering and Mathematics double major.
Shivansh Singh Chauhan, Computer Science.
Tene Carter, Computer Science and Mathematics double major.
Rafael Orozco, Computer Science, Mathematics minor.
Christian Pangerl, Mathematics.
Outreach articles
Snapshots of modern mathematics from Oberwolfach article about merging models and data (2018)
Articles about research
SIAM News story about predator prey dynamics and stratocumulus clouds (2023)
SIAM News story about simplified geomagnetic models (2020)
UA News story about geomagnetic reversals (2017)
UA News story about Sloan Research Fellowship (2016)
NNSS article about Jesse Adams' dissertation work
CaCAO Days
Workshop for people with interests in Chaos, Computation, Analysis and OptimizationU2 can UQ
Workshop for people with interests in UQVideos
Public lecture about data assimilation (2017, Everything is Math lecture series)
Contact information
Email: matti [at] ucsd [dot] edu
Mail: Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics,Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego,9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0225, La Jolla, CA 92093-0225