Dr. Jood
Al Aswad.

I study how ocean life survives Earth's worst catastrophes in deep time. I aim to understand what traits tip the balance between extinction and endurance by using physiology, ocean conditions, and evolutionary history to explain who survives global crises and how.

For my postdoc, I use statistical modeling alongside Late Pleistocene and Holocene fossils to reconstruct what ocean communities looked like before humans started degrading them, building a data-driven baseline for understanding extinction drivers.

Many marine ecosystems were already unrecognizable by the time modern ecology arrived to study them. The fossil record is how we recover that baseline.

I also draw digitally and with charcoal, and I'm writing a high fantasy novel woven through with biology and geology. I build fantasy worlds out of the same material I study: deep time, ocean life, and what survives!