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Complex Problems with No Known Solutions

In 1979, I was at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC finishing my doctorate. I was in the Plasma Physics Division, where I was introduced to computer simulation – numerical modeling. In 1982, I started a postdoctoral fellowship at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; I stayed with NASA until 2005. At NASA, all of the scientists performance plans said we worked on “complex problems with no known solutions.” Looking back, that is what we did, but we did not really have a set algorithm for how to do that.

In 2005, I became a professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I don’t know what I said, but three students from the business and policy schools asked me to start a course on climate change. I realized, first, climate change was another complex problem with no known solution. Second, if we could develop a practice for confronting these complex problems, people could be effective fifteen years earlier in their careers.

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ABOUT

Richard Rood

Richard B. (Ricky) Rood

Richard B. (Ricky) Rood is a Professor Emeritus of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Prior to 2005, he held several leadership positions at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Rev: 20240723

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