Q & A with Prof. Paola Rizzoli

Photo by Ed Quinn.

At the last WHOI Commencement, MIT Prof. Paola Rizzoli was thanked for her many contributions to the Joint Program.  In recognition of her service, Jim Yoder announced the creation of the Paola Rizzoli Fellowship to be awarded each year to an incoming first year Joint Program student with preference given to a student who identifies initial co-advisers at both MIT and WHOI.

Given the ongoing discussion about how to strengthen the Joint Program, I thought it would be useful to find out a little about Paola's history of involvement, and to get her opinions about how the program might be improved.  To that end, she graciously agreed to answer a few questions via e-mail:

You have just stepped down from your position as the Director of the Joint Program at MIT after 12 years of service. How did you first become involved with the Joint Program, and how has your involvement changed over the years?

When I came to MIT in 1981, all the students in oceanography were enrolled in the Joint Program, the only way for a student to get an education and degree in oceanography (all disciplines) was to apply to the Joint Program, even though technically the two Institutions, MIT and WHOI, could issue separate degrees. It was therefore natural for any new professor in oceanography to become actively involved in the Program for getting students and teaching.

Also, a fundamental motivation was the interaction with the WHOI colleagues fostered by common research interests which very often led to co-advising a student. I became immediately involved both in advising and teaching and over the years I have taught all the core courses in PO, more than once, plus other courses I designed myself on topics related to my research.

In the 90's a parallel program was created at MIT, PAOC (Program in Amosphere, Oceans and Climate ) which can give an MIT-only degree in Oceanography. PAOC at first was competitive with the JP and created considerable friction between the two Institutions (see Review Committee report of 1998). Over the years, however, the coexistence of the two Programs smoothed out; presently the JP students in Physical and Chemical Oceanography are automatically part of PAOC and basically all the PO and CO students are enrolled in the JP.

Over the years my involvement extended to the programmatic aspects of the program. I became a member of JCPO in the early 90's, and was its chair in the period 1995-1997. At that time, we restructured the PO curriculum and general exam. And finally in 1997 I became MIT Director of the entire Program. So you could say that I have spent my entire professional life at MIT (30 years in 2011....) in the Program.

How has the Joint Program changed since you first became involved?

The organizational structure is basically the same, centered around five Committees, one for each oceanographic sub-discipline. At MIT, the line "of command" changed over the years. In 1997 I was reporting to David Litster, I do not even remember which was his exact position, and he was completely indifferent to the Program. Then, when the position of the Chancellor was created, I reported to him, and Larry Bacow was the first high level governance official at MIT to pay serious attention to the Program. Then the Provost Bob Brown became very strong supporter of the JP (in 2004, at the time of the second review, Bob described the program as "a jewel in the crown of graduate studies at MIT"). Under Bob my "boss" became the Associate Provost for Research and Education, and the present one, Claude Canizares, is also a great supporter of the Program.

This has been really a great change at MIT over 12 years. From the point of view of research and interests of the faculty of the two Institutions, there was unfortunately a drift apart between the two which has been recognized and is presently being addressed.

Indeed a recent review of the the Joint Program advised that we need to reinvigorate the connection between MIT and WHOI. Why do you think the connection has withered? What one thing might we do to help revitalize it?

There are a variety of reasons why the connection between MIT and WHOI withered and they are mostly discipline-related. For example, in geophysics, at MIT we lost a number of key faculty members, such as Sean Solomon and Marcha McNutt, who had been deeply involved in the JP. They were not replaced until the recent, vigorous hiring by Maria Zuber of new young faculty in all disciplines. Thus the ties in geophysics suffered greatly by these losses. Hopefully the new geophysics MIT faculty will establish vigorous ties with the WHOI faculty.

In PO and CO the reason was due to the drift apart of the research interests of the two faculties, especially in PO (see the creation of PAOC). At MIT we evolved very strongly to climate research, which is by nature multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. WHOI was rather resistant to such an evolution until recently. WHOI recognized the importance of such a change from more traditional oceanography by hiring as Director Susan Avery, an atmospheric and climate scientist. As Susan recalled at the June 5 commencement at WHOI, we had lunch together in Summer 2008 just a few months after she took over, and we talked about restructuring the Program towards climate oriented research. And recently WHOI has been looking for new hires in climate. The restructuring of the JP is occurring now in response to the last review report.

Another issue highlighted in the external review is the perception that students face too many hurdles if they want to undertake interdisciplinary studies in the Joint Program. Do you think that perception is correct? If so, do you think we can (or should) do something to facilitate interdisciplinary studies?

That perception was correct until recently, but the situation is changing. I will give you the PO example. Even though on paper there were three or four interdisciplinary curricula available to the students, the general exam in PO was, and is, still structured around GFD questions, even though we adjust them in the case of a student working at interdisciplinary research. The PO faculty has amply recognized this rigidity and a committee has been created and is presently working at restructuring the PO curriculum and general exam to reflect the importance of interdisciplinary studies.

The need of restructuring the entire JP, as recommended by the review committee, has been addressed through the creation by Susan Avery and Ed Boyle, of a Committee comprising MIT/WHOI faculty in all the disciplines. This restructuring process will also hopefully address the need of reinvigorating the ties between the two Institutions by creating new venues of interactions at the research and teaching/advising levels.

Is there anything you would like to say current students?

You are in one of the two top educational programs in oceanography in the world, and the only one which joins together a top sea-going institution and the top school in science and technology in the world. Take full advantage of the wide-ranging opportunities that each Institution offers; don't be shy in your ambitions. Reach out to the joint faculty: they are there to work with you and will only be delighted to help you in your research and to achieve your career goals.