Dr edie widder biography meaning

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In 2010 Dr. Widder was invited to participate in the prestigious Ted Mission Blue Voyage to the Galapagos Islands along with other leading thinkers and advocates of ocean conservation including Sylvia Earle, Barbara Block, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Mike deGruy, Callum Roberts and Enric Sala to name a few. Many of her exciting exploits have been featured in BBC, PBS, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic television productions.

This passion has led her to develop new ways to explore the deep sea and her innovations have produced many observations of animals and behaviors never seen before, including the first video of a giant squid filmed in its natural habitat. Edith Widder has made a career documenting and studying the amazing phenomenon that lights up the dark sea

Edith Widder was doing pretty well for herself.

EITS has produced footage of rare sharks, jellyfish, and discovered a new species of large squid (over six feet in length), all in their natural habitats. However, the submersible generated slow motion waves that lapped against the shore of the underwater lake.

Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (32:33)
One of the dive suits that Edie uses is made of aluminum, so it gets pretty cold in the suit when you are deep in the ocean.

This experience convinced her that she wanted to be a marine biologist. The first test of the device occurred on an expedition in the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. This week, we’re going to take a closer look at ocean biological researcher Dr.

Edith Widder!

dr edie widder biography meaning

Edie dove in a submersible at the site of one of these brine pools, and it was one of the most remarkable things she has ever seen. ORCA is the world’s first technology focused, marine conservation, not-for-profit. The data from this study helped contribute to policy changes that prohibited the spreading of biosolids around the lake. Specifically, Edie studied bioluminescence in a type of marine plankton.

Their tagline, which is Mapping Pollution, Finding Solutions, describes their team’s results-driven approach to meeting some of the greatest challenges our ocean planet is currently facing.

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Working with engineers, she has conceived of and built several unique devices that enable humans to see beneath the waves in new ways, including HIDEX, a bathyphotometer which is the U.S.

Navy standard for measuring bioluminescence in the ocean; important information for keeping submarines hidden from above. Edie has received numerous awards and honors throughout her career, including a MacArthur Fellowship, the 2018 Explorers Club Citation of Merit, Induction into the Women Diver’s Hall of Fame, and Certifications as a research pilot for single-person submersibles, including wasp, Deep Rover, and Deep Worker.

But then came an opportunity she couldn’t refuse: a deep-sea dive in a single-person submersible diving suit called a Wasp. Widder also created a remotely operated deep-sea camera system, known as ORCA’s Eye-in-the-Sea (EITS). This discovery led to Edie receiving additional funding to create a more sophisticated version of this camera system.

A Shining Success!

Edie and her team conducted testing to discover the very high levels of toxins, and they showed that this toxin was transferring to the fish in the lake. The brine pools are home to bacteria and other organisms like mussels, but they are toxic to most fish. This was particularly poignant when Edie was on an expedition to deploy an instrument she had worked really hard to develop.

Both of Edie’s parents had PhDs in mathematics, and she had an opportunity to travel all over the world with them on sabbatical when she was eleven years old.