Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli is a professor of physical oceanography in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Malanotte-Rizzoli is a physical oceanographer interested in climate, the general ocean circulation and ecosystem models, which she studies through the development of mathematical numerical models. Her interests extend to the oceanographic and geological properties responsible for the Venice floods and the MOSE barriers completed for its protection. Her most recent interests are focused on the development and application of a regional climate coupled ocean/atmosphere model for the South Asia Maritime Continent for the understanding of its present climate and the prediction of future climate scenarios. This project is part of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Program. A constant interest throughout her career has been the study and prediction of the extreme floods affecting the city of Venice, Italy, and of its lagoon and the construction of the mobile barriers at the lagoon inlets for their protection. She received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Padua in 1968 and a Ph.D. in physical oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. She is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2006), American Meteorological Society (2002), International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, and the Italian Society of Physics.