News | October 1, 2011

MIT/WHOI Joint Program faculty meeting – September 2011

Redfield Auditorium, Tuesday September 27th, 2011, faculty from MIT and WHOI enjoyed a Fall retreat. The day included talks by various faculty and a “townhall discussion” around maintaining and strengthening bonds between the two institutions and their roles within the Joint Program.

Faculty enjoy lunch overlooking Eel Pond – image: J. Marshall

Morning

MIT and WHOI faculty met at the Redfield Auditorium at 10.30. We began with talks from younger faculty at MIT and WHOI.

Franz Hover (Mech Eng, MIT)
Marine Robotics and Electric Ships.

Magdalena Andres (PO, WHOI)
Ocean dynamics and observations off the Grand Banks.

Dan Cziczo (EAPS, MIT)
Exploring atmospheric aerosols in the field.

Gareth Lawson (Biology, WHOI) :
Acoustic sampling of krill/herring interactions, ocean acidification.

David McGee (EAPS, MIT)
Dust fluxes in the Holocene and at the LGM.

Kris Karnauskas (G&G, WHOI)
Tropical SSTs of past and possible future climates.

Amy Apprill (Biology, WHOI)
Microbiomes of marine animals.

Lunch

Lunch overlooking Eel Pond was followed by breakouts and tours of some of WHOI facilities.

Afternoon

The main afternoon event was a well-attended ‘town hall meeting’ of WHOI and MIT faculty in the Redfield auditorium.

The townhall was interesting with wide-ranging, honest and open discussions (moderated skillfully by Jim Yoder) about strengths and weaknesses of the program. Lots of important issues were discussed including:

  • Keeping the ties between MIT and WHOI strong
  • The need to encourage interdisciplinary research and how the present JP structure does or does not encourage that
  • The desire of WHOI to launch a climate track in the JP, jointly with MIT
  • Curricular discussions
  • Interest in having more exchanges and mixers between MIT and WHOI
  • Websites and ‘marketing’ of the program.
  • Oceans@MIT, the proposed MIT Global Environmental Initiative and the oceans component thereof in collaboration with WHOI.

The day ended with drinks, light snacks and general agreement that we should do it again soon.

Report by John Marshall, MIT