My research seeks to advance our knowledge of ocean and climate dynamics in the contexts of contemporary global warming and past climate changes. In particular, I am interested in the problems of ocean and atmospheric circulation, ocean thermal structure and variability, large-scale ocean-atmosphere interactions, climate variations on scales ranging from several to thousands of years and longer, and climate predictability. Examples of phenomena I study include El Niño and Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and rapid climate change, tropical cyclones, Madden-Julian Oscillation, Equable (warm) climates of the past (e.g. Pliocene, Eocene), Ice Ages. Some of these phenomena are part of tropical oceanography and meteorology, while other originate in high latitudes. These are fascinating areas of research interweaving several disciplines such as physical oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics, atmospheric sciences and paleoclimate. In this work, I and my research group use a hierarchy of approaches, including numerical simulations with state-of-the-art general circulation models (GCM), advanced theoretical methods, analysis of observations, and idealized ocean and climate models. The ultimate goal of my research is to understand physical processes that control ocean and climate dynamics and to improve our ability to predict climate.