James McAllister is in the fourth year of a doctorate in oceanography, supervised by Elena Reyes. His research is on the short, intense events that move water across the shelf break — how often they happen, what triggers them, and how much of the annual exchange they account for.
The problem with studying something that lasts two days and happens unpredictably is being there for it. His approach has been to stop trying, and instead to let an autonomous glider fly repeat sections continuously across the boundary for as long as it can. The 2026 deployment ran eleven days unattended and returned a complete record, including two events.
He presented the first results at the undergraduate research symposium, on the grounds that the students running the vehicle deserved to see what it found.
McAllister completed his bachelor's degree at Northmoor before starting the doctorate. He assists with OCEA 450 Data Analysis for Ocean Science and has sailed on six cruises aboard R/V Cascadia Strait.