A funny thing happened to Eugene Vivino ’16 on the day his landlord’s birds flew away.
A woman who was helping to locate them was wearing a jacket with a logo that caught Vivino’s attention: Scripps Institution of Oceanography. And, she told him, Scripps, a center for ocean and Earth science research in La Jolla, California, was hiring. Then a systems analyst at Northrop Grumman working to support Department of Defense research labs, and with a degree in Earth and environmental sciences from Lehigh, Vivino decided to send in a resume. He secured a systems analyst job with Scripps, providing comprehensive IT services to research ships around the clock as part of the Ship Cyber Infrastructure Services (ShipCIS) team to ensure they are working at their best and protected from digital threats.
The job has taken him to remote spots around the world, including far above the Arctic Circle aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy to collect data and investigate the condition of the Arctic—a mission, Vivino said, that will help shape the world’s understanding of the Arctic at a critical point in history.
Also a member of the Ship-based Technical Support in the Arctic (STARC) team, Vivino said he helped conduct sample collection and provided technical support for many data acquisition systems that enabled the science to happen. On board the vessel were researchers from the National Science Foundation and International Arctic Research Center as a part of the NABOS 2023 Cruise that left from Kodiak, Alaska, sailed through the Arctic, and arrived in Tromsø, Norway, over the span of 38 days.
“It felt like I was getting to serve my country and felt like I was getting to do good in the world,” said Vivino.
See full story by Mary Ellen Alu in the Lehigh Alumni Bulletin, Spring 2024.