Marvel attended the University of California at Berkeley, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and astronomy in 2003.

She received her PhD in 2008 in theoretical physics from University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar and member of Trinity College.

[3][4] She continued that trajectory as a postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before joining the research faculty at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University.

Marvel's current research centers on climate modeling to better predict how much the Earth's temperature will rise in the future.

While computer models have difficulty simulating the changing patterns of cloud cover, improved satellite data can begin to fill in the gaps.