Two appointments to career development professorships have been announced recently.
Associate Professor John C. Marshall of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences has been named a Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Professor.
Assistant Professor J. Robert Fricke of the Department of Ocean Engineering has been named the 1992 Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization by the MIT Sea Grant College Program.
Professor Marshall, a physical oceanographer, joined the faculty in July 1991 after spending seven years teaching in the Department of Physics at Imperial College, England, where he received his PhD in 1980 in dynamical oceanography. He did postgraduate work in atmospheric physics at Oxford University and Imperial College before joining the faculty there. He is presently on leave from his appointment at London University where he is a Reader in Physics.
Professor Marshall is known for his work in modelling the large-scale oceanic circulation and in analyzing both theory and observations of the persistent structures in the atmosphere. His research has focused on the interaction between geostrophic turbulence in the atmosphere and ocean and its influence on large-scale flows. Geostrophic turbulence is linked to the earth's rotation. In recent years he has been studying convective elements of the ocean circulation and the deep circulation.
Professor Fricke joined the Department of Ocean Engineering in 1990. His research interest is in using ocean acoustics to explore the underside of sea ice. He will use the fellowship to develop instrumentation for under-ice exploration with an autonomous underwater vehicle. This will involve calibrating existing instrumentation for under-ice conditions and developing prototypes for deployment in the Arctic. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Professor Fricke received the PhD in ocean engineering from MIT.
The Doherty Professorship, endowed by the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation, encourages promising, non-tenured professors to undertake marine-related research that will further innovative uses of the ocean's resources. Every year the program selects one or two new faculty members for an award of $25,000 per year. Professors Linda Cima of chemical engineering and Harri K. Kytomaa of mechanical engineering were named Doherty Professors in 1991.
A version of this article appeared in the April 1, 1992 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 36, Number 25).
