A. Douglas Carmichael papers

Alexander Douglas Carmichael, 1929-2015, was professor emeritus of ocean engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received a BS from London University in 1949 and a PhD in mechanical engineering at Trinity College Cambridge, England in 1958. Carmichael taught at MIT as professor of power engineering in the Department of Ocean Engineering in 1970, then the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, until his retirement in 1996. (1) Carmichael served as the faculty director of the Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES), 1988-1995. He was also a fellow and Northeast Regional Vice President, 1991-1994, of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME).

Carmichael specialized in gas and steam turbines, applied mechanics, and power and propulsion systems. In 1974, he and students in the summer laboratory of the Sea Grant Program developed the first MIT autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), which could be programmed to perform oceanographic research. (2)

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Report of the President for the Academic Year 1969-1970, Reports to the President, 1971, http://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/59051.

2. Alissa Mallinson, “Professor A. Douglas Carmichael, Leading Ocean Engineer, Passes Away at 86,” MIT MechE, March 22, 2016, http://meche.mit.edu/news-media/professor-douglas-carmichael-leading-ocean-engineer-passes-away-86.