Research Experience

• University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
  Ph.D. Student, Environmental Engineering
  August 01, 2022 – Present

  • Currently, I am a Ph.D. working with Professor Tina Chow to develop data assimilation applications for high-resolution wildfire smoke models.

 

• San Francisco Estuary Institute, Richmond, California
  Environmental Analyst
  September 01, 2020 – December 01, 2022

  • Developed biogeochemical + hydrodynamic numerical models to inform management decisions for the greater Bay Area. Work involved data processing, model set-up, model post-processing, and advancing interpretive findings.

 

• Fulbright Fellow, Technische Universiteit Delft, the Netherlands
  Researcher in river morphology
  September 01, 2019 – June 01, 2020

  • Worked in collaboration with Rijkwaterstaat (Dutch water ministry) and TU Delft to quantify morphological change from fixed river beds in the Waal. This involved the conversion and geospatial processing of various multibeam & single-beam bathymetric datasets.

 

• Deltares, Delft, the Netherlands
  Rivers Department
  June 15, 2018 – September 15, 2018

  • Processed bathymetry data from various sources and experimented with methodologies for parametrizing bedform drag in the hopes of improving physically-based roughness predictors for the Rijn River hydrological model.

 

• Environmental Fluid Mechanics Lab, Stanford, California
  Sediment transport research
  May 01, 2016 – September 01, 2019

  • Performed statistical analysis of sedimentation budgets for San Francisco Bay. Organized fieldwork in San Francisco Bay and calibrated/operated various instruments, including ADVs, ADCPs, RBRs, and thermistors.
  • Supervisors: Oliver Fringer and Joe Adelson

Education

Stanford University, Stanford, California
September 2015 – June 2019

• B.S. with Honors in Environmental Engineering

  • Focus: environmental fluid mechanics, computational fluid dynamics, sustainability, mathematics

  • Completed over six masters courses in the environmental fluid mechanics masters track

  • Thesis: A Numerical Model for Sediment Flux and Floccation in San Francisco Bay. Ran a coupled hydrodynamic + sediment model (DFlow-FM + DELWAQ) to calculate sediment transport pathways and budgets in South San Francisco Bay.

Skills

Python (incl. geospatial analysis packages), MATLAB, QGIS, numerical hydraulic modelling (incl. DFlow-FM, DELWAQ), LINUX/UNIX systems, GIT/version control, UAV pilot license, technical + long-form writing

Publications & Presentations

Technical Reports

• S.R. White, P. Mugunthan, A.T. King, F. Karimpour, T.E.C. Kraus, E.B. Stumpner, B.A. Bergamaschi, D.B. Senn. “Delta-Suisun Biogeochemical Model: Calibration and Validation (WY2016, WY2011).” San Francisco Estuary Institute. Richmond, CA. September 2021.

• S.R. White, A. King, F. Karimpour, P. Mugunthan, D. Senn. “Nutrients in the Northern San Francisco Estuary: Transport, Cycling, and Forecasted Changes after Nutrient Load Reductions.” San Francisco Estuary Institute. Richmond, CA. March 2021.

• F. Karimpour, S.R. White, A. King, P. Mugunthan, D. Senn. “Delta Biogeochemical Model WY2016: Progress Update.” San Francisco Estuary Institute. Richmond, CA. December 2019.

Conferences

-S.R. White, A. Blom, “Quantifying sediment transport and associated bed elevation change over the fixed layers at Nijmegen and St. Andries,” in Netherland Centre for River Studies 2020, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, February 2020.

• S.R. White, O.B. Fringer, “Using D-Water Quality and D-Flow FM to model cohesive sediment transport in San Francisco Bay,” in Delta Science and Software Days 2019, Deltares, Delft, the Netherlands, November 2019.

• S.R. White, O.B. Fringer, “Estimating a Sediment Budget in South San Francisco Bay from limited streamflow data,” in Ocean Sciences 2018, Portland, Oregon, USA, January 2018.

Other

• Sienna White, “The Hoverflies are Props: Notes on Fredrik Sjöberg’s Memoir.” Anthroposphere: the Oxford Climate Review, November 2019.

Awards & Scholarships

• Firestone Medal 2019
  • Given to top 10% of honors theses at Stanford.
• 1st place, Creative Nonfiction Prize 2017
  • Won Stanford’s annual award for best creative nonfiction essay written that year.
• Human Cities Urban Innovation Contest Finalist 2016
  • Declared a finalist (top 5) for an idea linking water-sustainable cap + trade rate structuring to community microgrants.
• US Presidential Scholar 2015
  • Awarded by the Department of Education to the top graduating boy and girl in each state.

Other Work Experience

• Teaching Assistant, Stanford University, California 2016–2019
  • Graded and/or helped teach several courses, including Energy Options for the 21st Century, Modeling Environmental Flows, and Storycraft (a theater class on personal storytelling).
• Senior Producer, Stanford Storytelling Project, Stanford, CA 2016–2019
  • Organized events with visiting poets, authors; contributed to the quarterly podcast “State of the Human.”
• Solar installation + design, Altenergy Incorporated, Boise, ID 2015 and 2017
  • Used SketchUp to design solar installations, conducted component research, and constructed financial models for investment analysis.
• Community radio, Radio Boise, Boise, ID 2014–2020
  • Ongoing volunteer with Radio Boise, Boise’s community radio station. Work includes podcast development, music programming, & grant writing.

References

• Professor Oliver Fringer
  • Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University
  • 473 Via Ortega, Room 187 MC: 4020, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
  • fringer@stanford.edu
• Professor Astrid Blom
  • Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Technische Universiteit Delft
  • astrid.blom@tudelft.nl
• Joe Adelson, Ph.D.
  • jadelson@stanford.edu
  • +1 (918) 289-8464

Interests

• Community radio
• Social justice
• English literature
• Music production
• Urban sustainability