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Meet the Class of 2005-2007

Who are the Navy officers who study at MIT/WHOI?

Enlarge ImageA group of U.S. Navy officers are pursuing graduate degrees in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program through a special arrangement between the institutions. They are: (back row, from left) Lt. j.g. Brendan Gotowka, Ensign Matthew Watts, and Ensign Colleen Maloney; (middle row) Ensign Maria Parra-Orlandoni, Ensign Allison Berg, and Lt. Cmdr. Jasper "Carl" Hartsfield; (front row) Ensign Kathryn D'Epagnier and Lt. Benjamin Jones. (See "An Officer and a Graduate Student.") (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, WHOI)

Lieutenant Commander Carl Hartsfield, Class of 2005

Education: Murray State University, 1992
Experience: 15 years of active duty as a nuclear-trained submarine officer, including two tours on fast attack submarines (USS Los Angeles and USS Parche) and one tour at the Pentagon
Research: developing a navigation method for REMUS autonomous underwater vehicles that uses a single ship-mounted beacon instead of an expensive acoustic field placed on the bottom of the ocean
Advisors: Arthur Baggeroer, MIT, and Chris von Alt, WHOI
After grad school: will become second-in-command of the ballistic missile submarine USS Nevada

Lieutenant junior grade Brendan Gotowka, Class of 2005

Education: U.S. Naval Academy, 2003
Research: contributing to the Mine Burial Prediction program, which examines how the movement of seafloor sediments can cover and uncover explosives
Advisor: Peter Traykovski, WHOI
After grad school: nuclear power training school and submarine warfare

Lieutenant Benjamin Jones, Class of 2006

Education: U.S. Naval Academy, 1997
Experience: helicopter pilot for six years
Research: analyzing the acoustic spectra of “biosonar”—that is, what beaked whales “see” when bouncing echoes off prey
Advisors: Andone Lavery and Tim Stanton, WHOI
After grad school: will join the Meteorology and Oceanography Command

Ensign Allison Berg, Class of 2006

(See "Double Duty for Ensign/Student Allison Berg")
Education: U.S. Naval Academy, 2004
Research: using portable Sonic Detection and Ranging (SODAR) instruments to study the winds from the ocean’s surface to roughly 200 meters altitude
Advisor: Gene Terray, WHOI
After grad school: training as a surface warfare officer on the destroyer USS Momsen

Ensign Colleen Maloney, Class of 2006

Education: U.S. Naval Academy, 2004
Research: studying the properties of underwater sand ripples on the continental shelf and how they are remodeled by storms (part of the Mine Burial Prediction program)
Advisor: Peter Traykovski, WHOI
After grad school: training as a surface warfare officer in Little Creek, Va.

Ensign Matthew Watts, Class of 2006

Education: U.S. Naval Academy, 2004
Experience: served for three years as enlisted sailor before entering the U.S. Naval Academy
Research: working to create a mechanical fish that will mimic the fast startle response observed in fish.
Advisor: Mike Triantafyllou, MIT
After grad school: training as a surface warfare officer in Pearl Harbor

Ensign Kathryn D’Epagnier, Class of 2007

Education: U.S. Naval Academy, 2005
Research: interested in underwater vehicles
Advisor: To be determined
After grad school: training as a surface warfare officer

Ensign David Farrell, Class of 2007

Education: U.S. Naval Academy, 2005
Research: to be determined
Advisor: Art Baggeroer, MIT
After grad school:flight school in Pensacola, Fla.

Ensign Maria Parra-Orlandoni, Class of 2007

Education: U.S. Naval Academy, 2005
Research: would like to work with autonomous underwater vehicles
Advisors: Henrik Schmidt, MIT, and Dana Yoerger, WHOI
After grad school: training as a surface warfare officer in San Diego

Notable Alumnae/i of the MIT/WHOI and Navy Partnership

Rear Admiral Craig E. Dorman (retired)
A one-time Navy SEAL, Dorman received his doctorate in physical oceanography from the Joint Program in 1972. His 26-year career also included service as director for anti-submarine warfare in the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. Upon retirement in 1989, he became the sixth director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. From 1993 to 2002, he was a senior scientist at Pennsylvania State University and served as special assistant and chief scientist at the Office of Naval Research. Since 2002, he has served as vice president for research at the University of Alaska.

Rear Admiral Jay M. Cohen
Awarded dual master’s degrees in ocean engineering and naval architecture in 1972, Cohen’s military experience has included tours as a submarine commander and as Deputy Director for Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Since 2000, Cohen has served as Chief of Naval Research, managing the science and technology programs of the Navy and Marine Corps.

Rear Admiral Paul Sullivan
After earning his master’s degree in ocean engineering in 1975, he commanded several fast attack and ballistic missile submarines. In 1998, he became director of the Navy’s Deep Submergence Branch, and then moved to director positions on the United States Strategic Command Staff and the Chief of Naval Operations Staff. He is now commander of the submarine force for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Captain Wendy Lawrence
In a naval career that began with her entry into the U.S. Naval Academy in 1977, Lawrence served for 11 years as a helicopter pilot. She achieved a MIT/WHOI master of ocean engineering degree in 1988, and by 1992, she was selected for astronaut training by NASA. (Her father, William Lawrence, was a test pilot with future astronauts John Glenn and Alan Shepherd and a finalist in the inaugural astronaut class.) She made space shuttle flights in 1995, 1997, and 1998, before training for several years for duty on the Russian space station Mir. In July 2005, she lifted off on the shuttle Discovery in the nation’s first return to space since 2003.

Commander D. Benjamin Reeder
Immediately after finishing his Ph. D. in oceanographic engineering in 2002, Reeder shipped off to the Arabian Gulf to serve as meteorology and oceanography officer on USS Tarawa during the first months of the war. He finished drafting two science journal papers based on his thesis work while sailing back from the Gulf in fall 2003. In 2004, Reeder joined the faculty in the department of oceanography at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

Posted: August 26, 2005

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