On this day in history...

...in 1905, Mary Sears was born in Wayland, Massachusetts. She developed an early interest in biology, collecting plants and animals near her home. Sears graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1927 with a degree in zoology and later earned her Ph.D. in 1933. She became a research assistant at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), focusing on marine plankton studies. During World War II, Sears joined the U.S. Navy's Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) and was appointed head of the Navy Hydrographic Office's Oceanographic Unit. Her team's research was critical to naval operations, providing essential data on ocean conditions that improved the safety and effectiveness of submarine missions. After the war, she returned to WHOI, where she co-founded and served as the first editor of the journal Deep-Sea Research. Sears continued to contribute significantly to oceanography until her passing on September 2, 1997.

Mary Sears's legacy as a pioneering oceanographer and her contributions during World War II have left an enduring impact on marine science and military history.

Sources

•    Harvard Magazine: harvardmagazine.com/2015/06/mary-sears
•  Naval History and Heritage Command: https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/m/mary-sears--t-ags-65-.html
•  Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sears_(oceanographer)