Multiculturalism in the Aquatic Sciences

Minorities in the Aquatic Sciences

Dawn J. Wright, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Dept. of Geosciences, Oregon State University
dawn@dusk.geo.orst.edu

Academic Preparation:

Ph.D., 1994 University of California, Santa Barbara, Physical Geography/Marine Geology; M.S., 1986 Texas A&M University, Oceanography; B.S., 1983 Wheaton College (Illinois), Geology

Research/Professional Interests:

GEOGRAPHY - Geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis; marine geography; geography of Cyberspace; metadata; geographic information science in higher education.

MARINE GEOLOGY - Fissuring, faulting, hydrothermal, and magmatic processes at mid-ocean ridges; volcanic- tectonic cycles and hydrothermal circulation; processing and interpretation of high-resolution deep-sea video and photographic images. See http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/ and http://wexo.whoi.edu/doc/DawnW/Dawnintro.htm for additional information.

Professional Experience & Affiliations:

• Professor, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, 2002 - present
• Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, 1999 - 2002
• Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, 1995 - 1999
• Post-doctoral Research Associate, NOAA-Pacific Marine Environmental Lab, Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center, 1995 - 1995
• Graduate Student Researcher, Marine Science Institute and National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1990 - 1994
• Marine Laboratory Specialist (Marine Technician), Logistics and Technical Support, Ocean Drilling Program, Texas A&M University, 1986 - 1989
  • Association of American Geographers (AAG) - GIS, Coastal/Marine, and Worldwide Web Specialty Groups
  • American Geographical Society (AGS)
  • American Geophysical Union (AGU) - Tectonophysics Section
  • Geological Society of America (GSA)
  • Pacific Congress on Marine Science and Technology (PACON)
  • Oregon Academy of Science
  • American Scientific Affiliation (ASA)
  • Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS)
  • National Association for Black Geologists and Geophysicists (NABGG)
  • Greenpeace

  Biographical and Research Summary:

  Dawn Wright (a.k.a. Deepsea Dawn) has immersed herself in two disciplines. She is a geologist who studies the structures along the mid-ocean ridges--the volcanic mountain ranges and sites of seafloor spreading that snake along the bottom of the oceans thousands of meters deep. These mid-ocean ridges are the sites of hydrothermal vents and the unique ecosystems that the vents support. She is also a geographer who specializes in the software oceanographers of all disciplines use to map and analyze the seafloor.

  When in geologist mode, Dawn focuses on cracks (called fissures) that form on the seafloor along these seafloor-spreading centers. These fissures, which range in width from a few inches to several feet, act as passageways beneath the seafloor for magma (molten rock) rising from the mantle and for seawater . Hydrothermal vents are created when seawater percolates down through the cracks in the ocean crust, is heated by magma, then rises back though the cracks to the surface. Therefore fissures provide important clues to the nature of volcanic eruptions and to the birth and death of hydrothermal vents.

  To learn more about this seafloor "plumbing system," Dawn has studied photos, videos, and sonar images of the seafloor taken by remotely operated vehicles such as ARGO II. She has also descended to the seafloor in the research submarine ALVIN to observe and photograph these fissures firsthand. She is especially interested in the origin of these fissures. One possibility is that the spreading of the tectonic plates stretches the seafloor and opens up cracks. Other cracks might form when magma forces its way up through the crust.

  When in geographer mode, Dawn devotes her expertise to developing better ways of displaying, analyzing, and interpreting information she and other oceanographers collect from the seafloor. She is one of the leading authorities on geographic information systems (GIS). At the most basic level, GIS and similar programs convert data into maps. Yet within these maps, oceanographers can incorporate a wide variety of data. Not only might a GIS map display geological features such as fissures or vents, it might also show variations in water temperature and chemistry, changes in currents, and the distribution of different organisms. Oceanographers can also use GIS to manipulate and analyze a number of data sets simultaneously. A biologist might analyze the relationship between the distribution of organisms and water temperature. Dawn is using GIS to plot the positions of fissures to analyze how their distribution relates to the presence of hydrothermal vents and their associated biological communities.

  Although GIS has been used in a wide variety of fields from landscape ecology to archaeology to climatology, it has only recently been adapted for oceanography. Oceanographers study the ocean in three dimensions since they must take depth into account. GIS, however still has difficulty handling the 3-dimensional data that oceanographers often collect. Dawn writes software that processes these types of oceanographic data and eases transition of these datasets into GIS.

  Recently Dawn edited a book called Marine and Coastal Geographical Systems. She has also written for the magazine GeoInfo Systems, was chosen as a U.S. Fellow to the International Young Scholar's Summer Institute in Geographic Information in Berlin, Germany, in 1996, and was profiled on Black Entertainment Television's website. Currently she teaches three courses in GIS.