MIT, MIT EAPS, News, WHOI | July 31, 2017

From Computation to the Ocean, a Scientist Finds His Fit

For Mark Baumgartner, pictured here in his lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, a background in programming has been key to his career success. (Photo: Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
For Mark Baumgartner, pictured here in his lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, a background in programming has been key to his career success. (Photo: Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

By Catherine Arnold

Many oceanographers grow up loving the sea and its creatures. But for Mark Baumgartner, it was “absolute serendipity and computer skills” that got him started down that path. And today, computer programming continues to play a central role in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientist’s work studying whales. “Not a day goes by that I’m not writing computer code to analyze data,” he says. “If I want anything scientifically, I do it through the medium of programming.”

Read the full story in Science Magazine about how MIT-WHOI faculty member Baumgartner came to oceanography from the programming world, and is now applying his knowledge to help detect whales in the ocean to make them more “visible” to humans.