MIT Reports to the President 1997-98

MIT/WHOI JOINT PROGRAM IN OCEANOGRAPHY

The Joint Program of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers advanced degrees in oceanography and applied ocean science and engineering. Graduate study encompasses virtually all of the basic sciences as they apply to the marine environment: physics, chemistry, geology, geophysics, and biology. Students who choose applied ocean science and engineering may concentrate in the major fields (civil, environmental, mechanical, and electrical), materials science, or oceanographic engineering. More than 160 scientists/faculty from the two institutions participate in the Joint Program.

Since all the MIT faculty involved in the Joint Program are members of an academic department, their individual accomplishments and awards are reported through those departments. These include Courses I, II, VI, VII, XII and XIII.

Effective August 1997, Paola Rizzoli became the MIT Director of the MIT/WHOI Joint Program, succeeding Marcia McNutt, who left the Department to assume the Directorship of the Monterey Bay Research Institute (MBARI).

A Masters of Engineering degree in Marine Environmental Systems with the MIT Department of Ocean Engineering has been added to the degrees granted by the Joint Program. The degree program's goal is to prepare professionals for three missions: first, to understand, explore and monitor the ocean environment; second, to design, build and use technologies that maintain the integrity of the ocean and its resources; and third, to manage the marine systems and activities they support. This one-year program is designed to fill the rapidly-growing need for environmental training to manage complex ocean systems.

An external review of the Joint Program will take place in August, 1998 as a follow-up to the Internal Review which was conducted in 1994.

Plans are underway for a formal celebration of 30th Anniversary of the Joint Program, which was begun in 1968. The three-day event will be held September 25-27, 1998 and will feature a symposium entitled "Ocean Science and Engineering Education: Meeting the Challenge of the Year 2000".

More information about this Program can be found on the World Wide Web at the following URL: http://web.mit.edu/mit-whoi/www

Ronni Schwartz

MIT Reports to the President 1997-98