Edith Widder
Encyclopedia
Edith Widder is an American oceanographer, marine biologist, and the Co-founder, CEO and Senior Scientist at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association.
She graduated from Tufts University
magna cum laude with a B.S. in Biology, from University of California, Santa Barbara
with an M.S. in Biochemistry, and from University of California, Santa Barbara with a PhD in Neurobiology, in 1982. She was a senior scientist and director of the Bioluminescence Department at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution from 1989 to 2005. Certified as a Scientific Research Pilot for Atmospheric Diving Systems in 1984, she holds certifications that qualify her to dive the deep diving suit WASP as well as the single-person untethered submersibles DEEP ROVER and DEEP WORKER and she has made over 250 dives in the JOHNSON-SEA-LINK submersibles. Her research involving submersibles has been featured in BBC, PBS, Discovery Channel and National Geographic television productions.
A specialist in bioluminescence she has been a leader in helping to design and invent new instrumentation and techniques that enable scientists to see the ocean in new ways. These include HIDEX, a bathyphotometer which is the U.S. Navy standard for measuring bioluminescence in the ocean, and a remotely operated camera system, known as Eye in the Sea (EITS), an unobtrusive deep-sea observatory.
In 2005, Widder co- founded the Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA), a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of marine ecosystems and the species they sustain through development of innovative technologies and science-based conservation action. While translating complex scientific issues into engineerable solutions, Widder is fostering greater understanding of ocean life as a means to better, more informed ocean stewardship. In September 2006 she was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and in 2010 she participated in the TED Mission Blue Voyage in the Galapagos.
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She graduated from Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
magna cum laude with a B.S. in Biology, from University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
with an M.S. in Biochemistry, and from University of California, Santa Barbara with a PhD in Neurobiology, in 1982. She was a senior scientist and director of the Bioluminescence Department at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution from 1989 to 2005. Certified as a Scientific Research Pilot for Atmospheric Diving Systems in 1984, she holds certifications that qualify her to dive the deep diving suit WASP as well as the single-person untethered submersibles DEEP ROVER and DEEP WORKER and she has made over 250 dives in the JOHNSON-SEA-LINK submersibles. Her research involving submersibles has been featured in BBC, PBS, Discovery Channel and National Geographic television productions.
A specialist in bioluminescence she has been a leader in helping to design and invent new instrumentation and techniques that enable scientists to see the ocean in new ways. These include HIDEX, a bathyphotometer which is the U.S. Navy standard for measuring bioluminescence in the ocean, and a remotely operated camera system, known as Eye in the Sea (EITS), an unobtrusive deep-sea observatory.
In 2005, Widder co- founded the Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA), a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of marine ecosystems and the species they sustain through development of innovative technologies and science-based conservation action. While translating complex scientific issues into engineerable solutions, Widder is fostering greater understanding of ocean life as a means to better, more informed ocean stewardship. In September 2006 she was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and in 2010 she participated in the TED Mission Blue Voyage in the Galapagos.
Works
- Widder, E.A. (1997) Bioluminescence – Shedding some light on plankton distribution patterns. Sea Technology March 1997:33–39.
- Widder, E.A. (1999) Bioluminescence. In: “Adaptive Mechanisms in the Ecology of Vision.” Edited by: S.N. Archer, M.B.A. Djamgoz, E. Loew, J.C. Partridge & S. Vallerga. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands. pp 555–581.
- Johnsen, S., E.J. Balser and E.A. Widder. (1999) Modified suckers as light organs in a deep-sea octopod. Nature 398:113–114.
- Johnsen, S. and E.A. Widder. (1999) The physical basis of transparency in biological tissue: Ultrastructure and the minimization of light scattering. J. Theor. Biol. 199: 181–198
- Widder, E.A and S. Johnsen (2000) 3D spatial point patterns of bioluminescent plankton: A map of the “minefield” J. Plank. Res. 22(3): 409–420.
- Widder, E.A. (2000) Bioluminescence in octopods. Yearbook of Science and Technology. McGraw-Hill 2001: 52–55.
- Herring, P.J. and E.A. Widder (2001) Bioluminescence in plankton and nekton. In; Steele, J.H., Thorpe, S.A. and Turekian, K.K. editors, Encyclopedia of Ocean Science, Vol. 1, 308–317. Academic Press, San Diego.
- Widder, E.A. (2001) Bioluminescence. Bioscience Explained http://www.bioscience-explained.org/EN1.1/features.html Invited review.
- Widder, E.A., C.L. Frey and L.J. Borne (2003) HIDEX Generation II: A New and Improved Instrument for Measuring Marine Bioluminescence. Marine Technology Society of the IEEE, Oceans 4:2214–2221
- Widder, E.A., C.L. Frey and J.R. Bowers (2005) Improved bioluminescence measurement instrument. Sea Technology 46(2): 10–16
- Widder, E.A. (2006) A look back at quantifying oceanic bioluminescence: Seeing the light, flashes of insight and other bad puns. Mar Tech Soc J. 40(2):136–137.
- Widder, E.A. (2007) Sly eye for the shy guy: Peering into the depths with new sensors Oceanography. 20(4): 46–51 (invited review)
External links
- "Profile: Edith Widder", Science Now
- "Q&A: Edith Widder, MacArthur Fellow", Gulf of Maine Times, Lisa Capone, 2007
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