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1000 Degrees!

The first four graduate students to receive degrees from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program at the first commencement ceremonies in 1970 sit in the front row on either side of the aisle. WHOI’s recently retired research vessel, Knorr, served as a fitting backdrop to the pomp and circumstance. In the program’s most recent external review in 2014, a committee of distinguished ocean scientists wrote: “The JP is a national asset without which the ocean sciences in the world would be diminished.” In ceremonies today, the program, launched in 1967, will celebrate the awarding of its one-thousandth degree. You can get a cool commemorative T-shirt marking the milestone at the WHOI Store.(Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)