Public Lecture at Scripps Institution of Oceanography Highlights History of Deep-Sea Ocean Research

Deep-sea exploration and the history of 19th century ocean discoveries will be the focus of a free public lecture by Dr. Helen M. Rozwadowski, a world-renowned oceanography historian, at 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 8, in Sumner Auditorium at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 8602 La Jolla Shores Drive, in La Jolla. The public is invited.

Rozwadowski was awarded Scripps Institution's William E. and Mary B. Ritter Memorial Fellowship given biennially to a recognized scholar of marine sciences history. Her public lecture is titled "No longer 'For ever closed to human gaze': 19th century discovery of the deep sea."

An interest in Herman Melville and other maritime authors combined with her interest in biology as an undergraduate sparked Rozwadowski's interest in oceanography. As a graduate student in history of science, she studied the origin of oceanography as a scientific discipline, especially 19th century explorers of the ocean depths. Her academic publications have considered the changing cultural meaning of the oceans over time and the interweaving of many disciplines which created the modern science of oceanography.

Rozwadowski received her doctorate in the history of science from the University
of Pennsylvania in 1996. Her dissertation is entitled, "Fathoming the Ocean: Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea, 1840-1880." She was appointed historian for the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in 1996 and has written a history of this first intergovernmental marine science organization. She is a member of the School of History, Technology and Society at Georgia Institute of Technology.

The William E. and Mary B. Ritter Memorial Fellowship is an international research award made biennially by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to encourage scholarship in the history of marine science. The fellowship is named in honor of the institution's founding director and his wife and is funded by a gift from Robert L. and Bettie P. Cody. This honor requires the recipient to spend time at Scripps Institution to interact with scientists and scholars.