Carl Wunsch facts for kids

Carl Wunsch is a famous scientist who studied the ocean. He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a well-known university. He retired in 2013.

Carl Wunsch is especially known for his early work on internal waves (waves that move inside the ocean, not just on the surface). More recently, he researched how ocean circulation (the movement of ocean water) affects our planet's climate.

Carl Wunsch's Career

Carl Wunsch earned his highest degree, a Ph.D., in Geophysics (the study of Earth's physical processes) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1966.

He started teaching at MIT in 1967. By 1970, he became a tenured professor, which means he had a permanent teaching position. In 1976, he was named the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physical Oceanography, a special title for his work in ocean science.

Carl Wunsch and Climate Change

Carl Wunsch was one of the scientists interviewed for a documentary called The Great Global Warming Swindle. This film discussed climate change. However, Carl Wunsch later said that his ideas were not shown correctly in the film and that parts of his interview were used in a way that changed his original meaning. [1] [2]

Awards and Honors

Carl Wunsch has received many important awards and recognitions for his work in oceanography and geophysics:

• He became a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1978. This is a very high honor for scientists in the U.S.
• He was made a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1979.
• He was a Fulbright Scholar from 1981 to 1982, which allowed him to study abroad.
• He received the Maurice Ewing Medal from the American Geophysical Union and the U.S. Navy in 1990.
• In 2000, he was given the Henry Stommel Research Award by the American Meteorological Society.
• He became a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London in 2002. This is a prestigious scientific academy in the UK.
• He joined the American Philosophical Society in 2003.
• He received the William Bowie Medal from the American Geophysical Union in 2006.
• In 2021, he was awarded the Prince Albert I Medal by IAPSO (International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans). (IAPSO list of medal winners)

Books by Carl Wunsch

Carl Wunsch has also written several important books about his research:

• Carl Wunsch, Discrete Inverse and State Estimation Problems, 2006. ISBN: 0-521-85424-5
• Carl Wunsch, The Ocean Circulation Inverse Problem, 1996. ISBN: 0-521-48090-6
• Walter Munk, Peter Worcester, and Carl Wunsch, Ocean Acoustic Tomography, Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-521-47095-1