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www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 51 people & companies Widder Inducted into Diver Hall of Fame Harbor Branch deep-sea explorer and bioluminescence expert Dr. Edith Widder became one of the newest members of the Women Divers Hall of Fame. This elite group includes such notable women as Zale Parry, star of the Sea Hunt series, and Dr. Sylvia Earle, world record holder and National Geographic explorer- in-residence. HBOI president and CEO Dr. Shirley Pomponi, who now serves on the group's board of direc- tors, was inducted in 2003. Widder was first certified as a scuba diver in 1965 and has been at Harbor Branch for more than 15 years. She is also an adjunct research professor in the Earth & Planetary Sciences Department of The Johns Hopkins University, a distinguished scientist adjunct at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and an adjunct professor of biological science at both Florida Institute of Technology and Florida Atlantic University. In 1985, working from a Deep Rover, Widder was the first per- son to make video recordings of bio- luminescence in the ocean, which is the light chemically produced by many open-ocean animals. She is a world authority on the measurement of bioluminescence and co-holds a patent on the U.S. Navy's standard device for measuring biolumines- cence throughout the world's oceans. RESON Wins Egyptian Navy Contract RESON Mediterranean Srl has delivered and completed the installa- tion of a survey system that includes a RESON SeaBat 8124 multibeam sys- tem and PDS2000 Software to the Obituary: Charles David Keeling Charles David Keeling, a leading authority on atmospheric greenhouse gas accumulation and climate science pio- neer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), died Monday, June 20, 2005, while at his Montana home, of a heart attack. He was 77 years old. Keeling has been affiliated with Scripps since 1956. Keeling was the first to confirm the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide by very precise measurements that produced a data set now known widely as the "Keeling curve." Prior to his investigations, it was unknown whether the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial activities would accumu- late in the atmosphere instead of being fully absorbed by the oceans and vegetated areas on land. He became the first to determine definitively the fraction of carbon dioxide from combustion that remains in the atmosphere. The Keeling record of the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and at other "pris- tine air" locations, represents what many believe to be the most important time-series data set for the study of glob- al change. "There are three occasions when dedication to scientific measurements has changed all of science," said Charles F. Kennel, Scripps director. "Tycho Brahe's observations of planets laid the foundation for Sir Isaac Newton's theory of gravitation. Albert Michelson's measurements of the speed of light laid the foundation for Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Charles David Keeling's measurements of the global accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere set the stage for today's profound concerns about climate change. They are the single most important environmental data set taken in the 20th century. Dave Keeling was living proof that a scientist could, by sticking close to his bench, change the world. The loss is the world's loss, and the loss is also Scripps's, but, most of all, it is his family's loss." "Dr. Keeling will be sorely missed by the NOAA family," said Retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "As a scientist, he will forever be remembered by one of the most recognizable graphs in science, the sloping curve that symbolically represents the atmospheric carbon dioxide record he derived. His pioneering work on atmospheric carbon dioxide fundamentally changed the way we view the planet and our role on it and firmly placed him in the pantheon of history's great scientists. He has left us with the eternal gift of his vast knowledge, but more importantly he left us and future generations with the gift of inspiration. His legacy will inspire future generations to follow in his footsteps in the quest for scientific discovery." MTR#2 (49-64).qxd 8/30/2005 7:11 PM Page 51
