PAOC Spotlights
O’Gorman Awarded 2018 School of Science Teaching Prize
EAPS Associate Professor, Paul O'Gorman, is honored for excellence in graduate teaching.
The MIT School of Science recently announced the winners of its 2018 Teaching Prizes for Graduate and Undergraduate Education. The prizes are awarded annually to School of Science faculty members who demonstrate excellence in teaching. Winners are chosen from nominations by their students or colleagues.
As an associate professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), Paul O'Gorman was awarded one of two prizes for graduate education for his teaching of "Dynamics of the Atmosphere" (12.810). Nominators noted that his class was well-organized with clear expectations set, and they also lauded his humorous, engaging, and passionate teaching style.
O'Gorman is the first EAPS winner of an annual School of Science Teaching Prize since former professor Marcia McNutt was recognized in 1996. During her tenure at MIT, McNutt was the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics in EAPS and directed the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science & Engineering. Currently, she serves as President of the National Academy of Sciences and is a member of the EAPS Visiting Committee .
The other 2018 School of Science Teaching Prize recipients included fellow graduate education prize winner Ankur Moitra, the Rockwell International Career Development Associate Professor of Mathematics, in addition to the two awardees for undergraduate education: Assistant Professor Kirsten Perez of the Department of Physics, and William Minicozzi, the Singer Professor of Mathematics.
The School of Science welcomes Teaching Prize nominations for its faculty during the spring semester each academic year. Read the full announcement story here.
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Paul O’Gorman is interested in the large-scale dynamics of the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle, moist convection, and climate change. Recent work has focused on the response of precipitation extremes to climate change, the intensity of extra-tropical storm tracks, and the difference in warming between tropical oceans and land areas.
O'Gorman earned his PhD in aeronautics with a minor in applied mathematics in 2004 at the California Institute of Technology. He also holds an MSc in High-Performance Computing and a BA in Theoretical Physics from Trinity College, Dublin. He joined the MIT faculty in 2008.
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