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Carl Wunsch papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MC-0686

Scope and Contents

The collection documents the activities of Carl Wunsch spanning the years of circa 1965 to 2010.

Materials include: correspondence, recommendations, and committee materials.

Dates

  • Creation: 1965 - 2010

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Materials in this collection are open unless they are marked as restricted. Restrictions are noted in the container list.

Conditions Governing Use

Access to collections in the Department of Distinctive Collections is not authorization to publish. Please see the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy for permission information. Copyright of some items in this collection may be held by respective creators, not by the donor of the collection or MIT.

Biographical Note

Carl Issac Wunsch, born 1941, was the Cecil and Ida Green Professor Emeritus of Physical Oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before his retirement in 2013. He earned a BS degree in 1962 and a PhD in 1966 in geophysics at the MIT. At MIT he served as an assistant professor of physical oceanography, 1967-1970; associate professor, 1970-1975; professor, 1975-1976; Cecil and Ida Green professor emeritus of physical oceanography, 1976-2013; head of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1977-1981; Secretary of the Navy research professor, 1985-1989.

During his professional career, most of which has been spent at MIT, Carl Wunsch has worked on many aspects of physical oceanography and its climate implications, with emphasis on observations of all types, including the global-scale, using satellites and acoustic tomographic, and various conventional observation methods. Wunsch has authored or co-authored over 250 scientific papers and several books including The Ocean Circulation Inverse Problem and Discrete Inverse and State Estimation Problems (both Cambridge University Press). He has also taught at institutions around the world such as the California Institute of Technology, Cambridge University, and the Jet Propulsion Lab.

Wunsch has been honored as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fulbright Scholar. He also received the Maurice Ewing Medal from the American Geophysical Union and the U.S. Navy in 1990, the Henry Stommel Research Award from the American Meteorological Society in 2000, and the William Bowie Medal from the American Geophysical Union in 2006.

*This information retrieved from the EAPS webpage, https://eapsweb.mit.edu/people/wunsch.

Extent

12 Cubic Feet (12 record cartons)

Language of Materials

English

Physical Location

Materials are stored off-site. Advance notice is required for use.

Processing Information note

Some collection descriptions are based on legacy data and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. Description may change pending verification. Please contact the MIT Department of Distinctive Collections if you notice any errors or discrepancies.

Subject

Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Revision Statements

  • 2021 September 15: Edited by Lana Mason for compliance with DACS single-level optimum requirements.

Repository Details

Part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Department of Distinctive Collections Repository

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries
Building 14N-118
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