Gualtiero Victor Rudi Spiro Jaeger
​A few favorite tools, over time: A disposable waterproof camera on childhood summer trips, a home-made pinhole camera, and then a Sony Ericsson T610 in my teenage years. A Nikon FM2 since high school, usually with an 85 or 50mm. A Hasselblad 503cw found in Tokyo’s legendary second-hand camera shops. Most recently, a Nikon L35 AF from eBay—cheap, plastic, and consistently good. I also pick up woodworking tools occasionally, kitchen knives more often, and bird-watching binoculars more than expected.
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Standing on shoulders: I learned the fundamentals from Ansel Adams books at home and from my high school art teacher, Paul Smith. I later assisted Marcio Scavone in São Paulo for a season. I was also fortunate to learn underwater photography from Keith Ellenbogen. Grateful to all.
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Above or below water, I'm drawn to architecture and the spaces we shape, inhabit, and are shaped by—along with glimpses of the lives and work within them. From deserts, oceans, and cities that reset our sense of scale to the hidden microcosms of tide pools and the cityscapes of coral reefs.
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Path to becoming (the less useful kind of) doctor: I studied physics at UC Santa Barbara, then physical oceanography at MIT and Woods Hole. My PhD focused on ocean-climate interactions in the Indian Ocean, particularly the Bay of Bengal. More about days at sea chasing monsoon storms under the research tab.​Along the way I joined the MIT Water Club, leading the club as co-president in 2017-18.
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Back on dry land, I spent a year in Washington DC as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow with NOAA. I worked on policy approaches to support fishing communities affected by natural and human-caused disasters, and on global public-private cooperation around weather and climate data.
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Inspirations and recent reads:
