Carlos Moffat
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carlosmoffat.com
Carlos Moffat
@carlosmoffat.com
590 followers 330 following 60 posts
Associate Professor of oceanography at the University of Delaware. Interested in icy places.

Views my own. Old posts are deleted regularly.
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carlosmoffat.com
All of my students have heard me tell horror stories about people who don't back up their work.

I have a new one: Andrew Lloyd Webber lost the score for the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera to his cat, who jumped on his electronic piano and pressed "erase":

playbill.com/article/cat-...
London's Daily Mail reports that Lloyd Webber's new kitten Otto has managed to destroy the music he has penned for the upcoming sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. The six-month-old cat somehow climbed into the frame of Lloyd Webber's digital Clavinova piano, which features a built-in computer. The award-winning composer told the London paper, "I was trying to write some new music; Otto got into the grand piano, jumped onto the computer and destroyed the entire score for the new Phantom in one fell swoop."
October 29, 2025 at 11:35 PM
carlosmoffat.com
Maybe I can say *I* also run on AWS and need to go home and take a nap while the issue is resolved?
Canvas is experiencing issues due to an ongoing AWS incident. We are working on recovering as soon as possible. You can follow the status of the issue at https://health.aws.amazon.com/health/status and https://status.instructure.com/
October 20, 2025 at 4:56 PM
carlosmoffat.com
The President of MIT, Sally Kornbluth, has answered the request of the Trump administration to sign the Compact with a resounding no
Dear Madam Secretary, I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters. I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education. As we discussed, the Institute’s mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world’s great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples: • MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions. admissions. • MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family’s finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%. • We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don’t like – and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree. These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they’re right, and we live by them because they support our mission – work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law. The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone. In our view, America’s leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education. As you know, MIT’s record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America’s research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation. Sincerely, Sally Kornbluth
October 10, 2025 at 2:30 PM
carlosmoffat.com
5. 🌊 ❄️ I spoke to @evanbush.bsky.social from NBC News about the potential loss of the Palmer.

Read this excellent article here:

www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...
Moffat said decommissioning the Palmer and pausing the push for a new ship at the same time all but ensure the U.S. will create a decadelong data gap for polar marine scientists. Scientists have rallied against the cuts. Last month, more than 170 researchers, including Moffat, Leventer and Wellner, signed a petition aimed at reversing the decision. “It’s not a faucet of water you can turn on or off,” Moffat said. “Are we really going to depend on other countries to collect the observations we need to know how sea level is changing in the United States?”
September 4, 2025 at 3:51 PM
carlosmoffat.com
🌊 Research ships are a critical research platform but are also classrooms and training grounds. As @polarrobs.bsky.social says here, losing the Palmer would mean losing the ability to train the next generation of polar ocean scientists for a decade or more. An entire generation.
"I just think it's tragic, really, for U.S. science," said Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey. Graduate students and younger scientists will be hit hardest, Dr. Larter said. Unable to do field work and publish research, many of them will simply quit polar science, he said. "Effectively, you've lost a whole generation, a lot of expertise that will be lost and difficult to restart, Dr. Larter said.
August 22, 2025 at 1:11 PM
carlosmoffat.com
More than 100 scientists who work in Antarctica or care about having a strong U.S. research presence there have signed a letter calling for the U.S. to keep the Palmer in operation. (4/n)
We write as deeply concerned members of the Antarctic research community after learning of the plan, by the National Science Foundation, to terminate the lease of the Research Vessel/ IceBreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer in October of this year. The United States Antarctic Program has had at least one dedicated research vessel operating in the Southern Ocean since 1968. For those nearly six decades, the N.B. Palmer and its predecessors have supported world-class science that helped grow the U.S.'s standing as a leader of international scientific research. At the same time, these vessels have provided critical logistical support for the U.S. Antarctic scientific bases. Even as automation and remote observations have increased our observational capabilities in this harsh region of the world, there's no replacement for a dedicated research vessel that can access remote sea ice-covered regions of Antarctica and that allows sampling of the of the world, there's no replacement for a dedicated research vessel that can access remote sea ice-covered regions of Antarctica and that allows sampling of the full depth of the ocean and coastal regions on land. The early loss of the N.B. Palmer is troubling, especially at a time when other nations, including China, Korea, Japan, Britain, and Australia, among others, are increasing their marine capability for Antarctic waters. This decision forecasts the decline of an exceptional history of U.S. scientific contributions. Maintaining a continued US ship-based presence also has strong, strategic and national security geopolitical implications. Antarctica remains a model for international cooperation and peace, with all activities, marine and terrestrial, south of 60°S governed by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. The treaty, signed by 58 nations, committed all parties to a civilian presence guiding scientific investigation of this remote and fragile part of the world Today many Treaty. The treaty, signed by 58 nations, committed all parties to a civilian presence guiding scientific investigation of this remote and fragile part of the world. Today, many nations operate research stations and vessels in the Antarctic. While Antarctica remains remote and a difficult place to access, the modern world allows easier access each year and the number of groups there grows each year, for research, for tourism, for exploitation of fishery stocks, and simply for exerting national presence. We urge reconsideration of the decision to terminate the lease of the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer, and the continued forward-looking development of the next generation of Antarctic research vessels that will continue US leadership, scientifically and geopolitically, in the high southern latitudes. Sincerely,
July 25, 2025 at 8:01 PM
carlosmoffat.com
Here's the bibliography, b/c I'm a huge nerd:

The recollection of the case from Joe himself: www.whoi.edu/science/PO/d...

(see Appendix A)

MA Teacher's Oath in Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massach...

Pedlosky vs. MIT, 1967: law.justia.com/cases/massac...

6/n
A newspaper article with the headline "High Court Voids Oaths of Teachers" A letter from MIT demanding Joe Pedlosky sign a loyalty oath.
March 22, 2025 at 9:16 PM
carlosmoffat.com
If you're not an oceanographer, you wouldn't necessarily know Joe Pedlosky's name.

He's one of the most celebrated oceanographers of our time, author of a famous textbook and too many papers to count.

But back in the day, before all of that, he was a young professor who said "No". 5/n
A portrait of Joe Pedlosky. The cover of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, by Joe Pedlosky.
March 22, 2025 at 9:11 PM
carlosmoffat.com
Eventually, the case made it all the way to the Massachusetts Supreme Court, which found the law unconstitutional in 1967.

3/n
One of my proudest moments of that difficult time was when the case was heard in the Massachusetts Supreme Court. The notion that the action in the court that I observed from the back of the courtroom, an unknown, impecunious Assistant 97 Professor, could have such an influence on the law struck me as a vindication of the American system. Even before the decision came down, I was satisfied I had done the right thing. This 79 year-old man is happy the 26 year-old took the heat for his beliefs. Although, I was frightened of the possible consequences it might entail, again it was one of those things I did largely because I was frightened, i.e. frightened of what I would think of myself it I hadn't done it.
March 22, 2025 at 9:05 PM
carlosmoffat.com
In 1966 a young assistant professor at MIT refused to sign the oath. This was just 3 years out of finishing his Ph.D. and a month after starting his job.

His name is Joseph Pedlosky. He rightly recognized the oath as an attempt at intimidation.
There was another unexpected challenge. About a month after I joined the faculty and was teaching two sections of a "service" course, e.g. Advanced Mathematics for Engineers, as it was called those days, I received a letter in the interdepartmental mail asking me to come down to the Registrar's office to sign a Teacher's Loyalty Oath, a copy of which was included. I knew immediately that I would not sign but thought of it as a bureaucratic triviality that could be ignored. I think the basic reason I did not want to sign was that it seemed as an attempt at intimidation, warning teachers not to act in a manner that would make their loyalty questioned. Not signing led to a long battle, and happily, an eventual victory and the overturning of the law, but it took several years and an appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. I am attaching to this memoir an appendix containing a talk I gave in 2004 describing the step-by-step, blow-by-blow, nature of that action. Suffice it to say here that it added a great deal of stress to my life during that period, stress that for other reasons I will describe, was certainly not needed. I
March 22, 2025 at 9:01 PM