Pamela Lee is a first-year master’s student who has been highly accomplished in such a short amount of time. While most of her free time is spent debugging her code, or reading journal articles related to her research, Pamela also enjoys lazy nights at home with her cat, or the occasional get-a-way with her husband. She comes to USC from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Though she is not a student of traditional standing, she has made up for lost time since beginning her graduate school path at USC. She started her college journey in 2017 at Los Angeles Valley College, where she had the dream of attending UCLA. After four years of hard work, and a few setbacks, she finally reached her goal in 2021. 

In between her two years at UCLA, she attended an Undergraduate Research program at UW-Madison, where she discovered her passion for research in physical oceanography. With a background focused on physical oceanography, she now works in the Satellite Oceanography Laboratory with Dr. Subra Bulusu. Previous research was studying the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and how anthropogenic greenhouse gases affect cold anomaly occurrences. During this work, she was advised by Dr. Elizabeth Maroon of UW-Madison and Dr. Andrew Stewart of UCLA. Since joining Dr. Bulusu’s Satellite Oceanography Laboratory in May of 2024, her work has mainly focused on the dynamics within the Gulf of Mexico, which is funded by the National Academics of Science - Gulf Research Program. 

Pamela’s first-ever journal publication was accepted in April 2025 on “Surface Salinity Variability in the Gulf of Mexico During Flood and Drought Years” (Lee et al., 2025). This article in GRL explores the relative impact of freshwater discharge variability and how it affects the surface salinity and loop current responses in the Gulf of Mexico. Conducted as a case study, this paper explores how floods and droughts of the Mississippi River can influence large-scale dynamics and quantifies the relative variability of the Atchafalaya River as being the most important influencing factor of basin-wide surface salinity, when the discharge leads by four months. Along with the recent publication, Pamela also presented this work at USC’s yearly research showcase, DISCOVER USC, and was awarded Best Graduate Poster in Marine Science. Her outstanding research work is continuously recognized, as she was also awarded Outstanding Master’s Research in Marine Science by the School of Earth, Ocean and Environment. 

Such prestigious awards from both USC and the department are no easy task, but her hard work and determination has shone through as she becomes a rising star within the department. Her master’s program will conclude at the end of the year, but she plans to continue her success with SEOE by pursuing a PhD in Dr. Subra Bulusu’s Satellite Oceanography Laboratory beginning in the Spring of 2026. Continuing her work on Gulf of Mexico dynamics, her work will focus on Loop Current Frontal Eddies, with the hope of one day pursuing a career as a research scientist at Scripps Institute of Oceanography.