Distinctive Voices — Swells, Soundings, and Sustainability… But “Here be Monsters”

The lecture Swells, Soundings, and Sustainability… But “Here be Monsters,” will begin with a brief history of how the ocean has been mapped with ships, satellites, and intuition. In her lecture, Dr. Wright will also explain how modern-day mapping systems have become increasingly intelligent. These systems are changing what we measure, how we analyze, what predictions we make, how we plan and regulate, how we design, how we evaluate and ultimately how we manage it all.  And yet there remain compelling challenges in coping with both the over-abundance and paucity of data in the ocean, its multidimensionality, and how to make it accessible to the myriad audiences in great need of it.

Featured Speaker:

Dr. Dawn J. Wright

Environmental Systems Research Institute

Dawn J. Wright, Ph.D., is Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (aka “Esri”), a world-leading geographic information system (GIS) software, services and spatial data science company. She is also courtesy professor of Geography & Oceanography at OSU. From 1995-2011 Dr. Wright served full-time as an OSU tenure-track faculty member, first in the College of Science, and then in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. In 2007 she was named Oregon Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2017 she fully endowed the “Lydia Departmental Dog Fund for Student Support,” for OSU students majoring in geography, marine resource management, and water resources. Dr. Wright is an elected member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, as well as the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.