Marine Paleontologist · Data Scientist

Hi. I'm

Dr. Jood
Al Aswad.

The ocean's past is a warning we haven't finished reading.

Earth's oceans have faced catastrophe before. I'm a quantitative paleobiologist tracking how environmental change reshapes ocean life and biodiversity across space and time. My work is inherently interdisciplinary: I blend physiology, geology, earth system modeling, oceanography, and data science to understand the tipping points between extinction and endurance.

To my knowledge, I am the first female Saudi paleontologist.

One of my goals is student outreach within paleontology, so that everyone feels like they belong! 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!

See my research Get in touch
Dr. Jood Al Aswad

Postdoctoral Fellow

Virginia Tech · Dr. Pedro Monarrez Lab

Dr. Jood Al Aswad
The Researcher

Scientist, data thinker,
storyteller.

Who is Dr. Jood?

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.

Why this work matters

To save our reefs, we need to know
what we're losing.

You can't measure loss without knowing what was there before. The fossil record is that baseline.

2050
When over 90% of reefs are projected to be severely degraded.
The crisis we are racing against.
125,000
Years since the last natural warm period.
The fossil baseline that tells us what is coming.
1B+
People whose livelihoods depend on reefs.
Why reading that baseline matters right now.
How I work

Interdisciplinary by design.
Data-driven at every scale.

Answering deep-time questions requires pulling from biology, geology, oceanography, and computational science, all at once.

01

Quantitative & Biogeographic Analysis

I use biogeographic similarity measures like Jaccard and construct equal-area hexagonal grids to track how global marine community composition has changed through time. Large fossil occurrence databases let me pull community-level signals from deep time and turn them into statistically tractable narratives about survival, diversity, and collapse.

02

Cross-Disciplinary Integration

Fusing paleontology with marine biology, physical oceanography (oxygen, temperature, pH proxies), and ecology. My dissertation linked biogeographic patterns to extinction physiology and climate change; my postdoc extends this to invasive species and metabolic index modeling across the past ~125k years to the present.

03

Stratigraphy & Fieldwork

Reading rock sequences in the field to reconstruct ancient environments, collecting specimens, and systematically identifying fossils to build the primary datasets that everything else depends on. The numbers only mean something if you know what you're counting.

04

Data Visualization & Science Communication

Translating high-dimensional paleontological datasets into accessible visual narratives for scientific publication, public outreach, and policy-relevant storytelling. Fluent in R, Quarto, learning Python, and custom web-based visualization.

Education & Training

A path through
the deep time sciences.

Now
Postdoctoral Fellow Virginia Tech · Dr. Pedro Monarrez's Lab. Coral reefs, metabolic index, invasive species, and quantitative ecology.
2025
Ph.D. Geological Sciences (Paleobiology) Stanford University · Dr. Jonathan Payne. Linking biogeographic patterns in deep time to extinction, physiology, and climate change. Winifred Goldring Award · Stanford Centennial TA Award

My Ph.D. defense flyer, illustrated by me.

2019
M.S. Geological Sciences Cornell University · Dr. Terry Jordan. Stratigraphy, petrophysics & geothermal systems. Harriet Benson Research Fellowship Award
2016
B.S. Earth Science George Mason University · Dr. Linda Hinnov. Geodesy and Earth tides.
Technical Skills
Statistical & Quantitative
  • R · tidyverse · vegan
  • Python (learning)
  • Multivariate statistics
  • Logistic regression / GBM
  • Species distribution models
Data & Visualization
  • ggplot2 · Quarto
  • PBDB · IUCN databases
  • GIS · spatial analysis
  • d3.js / web viz
  • PostgreSQL
Earth Science
  • Paleobiology
  • Stratigraphy & fieldwork
  • Geochemical proxies
  • ESM output analysis
  • Metabolic index modeling
Communication
  • Scientific writing
  • Public outreach
  • Undergraduate teaching
  • Science illustration
  • Game design

One of my goals is student outreach within paleontology, so that everyone feels like they belong.

Explore my research View publications