Rice professor named dean of historic voyage
Iammarino to set sail for Semester at Sea

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

Rice University’s Nicholas Iammarino will sail into the history books this fall when he serves as executive dean of the 100th voyage of Semester at Sea. Departing next week from Nova Scotia, Iammarino and about 700 students will travel around the world before returning to San Diego Dec. 14.

	NICHOLAS IAMMARINO

Despite the impressive looking ship — the MV Explorer — this trip is no cruise. The ship was retrofitted to create an educational environment. Fully equipped with library resources, the 30,000-square-foot ship also boasts wireless Internet access, nine state-of-the-art classrooms, a student union, and computer and multimedia labs.

“It’s a floating university, a campus afloat,” Iammarino said. “It would be like if you turned Sid Rich College on its side and added a library, professors and classroom space. With those resources, we are able to provide a holistic global education for our students.”

Though the ship is self-sufficient, the students won’t just be learning onboard; a portion of every course they take has direct field experience related to the ports in which they dock. About 30 faculty members will teach almost 90 courses across many disciplines. Each voyage is carefully mapped out to provide experiences in countries and cultures with varying stages of economic development, contrasting political systems and great diversity of religious and cultural values.

Though modifications might be made for safety or weather conditions, the current plan is to stop in Cadiz, Spain; Casablanca, Morocco; Accra, Ghana; Cape Town, South Africa; Port Louis, Mauritius; Chennai, India; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Hong Kong and Shanghai; Yokohama and Osaka, Japan; and Honolulu and Hilo, Hawaii.

Iammarino will serve as executive dean of the 100th voyage of Semester at Sea. He describes the ship as “a campus afloat. It would be like if you turned Sid Rich College on its side and added a library, professors and classroom space.”

“Unlike a traditional study abroad where you immerse yourself in one culture to study the language, people or history, the Semester at Sea lets you take a look at, and then cross, cultures and geopolitical boundaries,” Iammarino said. “Slowly going around the world, you see subtle differences between cultures and people. You can see the influence of all different population and culture movements.”

But there are similarities too.

“Poverty is poverty no matter where you go,” he said. “And the family is alive and well. People love their children. It doesn’t matter what country you’re in or what religion you practice; there’s a basic need for family and love.”

An avid traveler and a faculty member on a previous voyage, Iammarino tries to incorporate the global perspective in his teaching and research at Rice. For more than 20 years, he has led a study-abroad trip to the United Kingdom that compares the U.S. and British health care systems. He also serves as the associate director for international initiatives at the Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Research Center and for administration and international initiatives based at Baylor College of Medicine. 

Debating health care
Learn more about the study abroad program that examines health care in the U.S. and United Kingdom
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