Daria Halkides is a climate researcher for the UCLA-Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering (JIFRESSE) working under contract at JPL since January 2010, and she was previously a Caltech postdoc at JPL from 2007-2009. She studies the roles of different ocean mixed-layer processes and other aspects of ocean dynamics in multi-scale climate phenomena and their interactions in the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the Indonesian Seas. Her current work focuses on variability along the southwestern tropical Indian Ocean Thermocline Ridge and in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean on timescales associated with the Madden-Julian Oscillation. She makes extensive use of ocean state estimation products from the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) project at JPL and a variety of satellite data products. Prior projects include analysis of atmospheric teleconnections that modulate variability of the South Asian monsoon, understanding the mechanisms behind seasonal phase-locking of the Indian Ocean Zonal/Dipole Mode, and the long-timescale effects of intra-seasonal atmospheric variability on the meridional overturning circulation in the Indian Ocean. Dr. Halkides is also interested in the cryosphere, and has recently begun working part-time with a group at JPL studying the role of climate variability and melt in ice sheet slippage events.