Columbus Iselin

Iselin studied under Henry Bigelow at Harvard, earning a master’s degree in 1928. He organised cruises observing the Labrador Current and Gulf Stream, later helping design WHOI’s Atlantis and serving as its first captain.

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With colleagues he measured temperature and salinity at different depths along repeated sections, using density distributions to estimate relative currents. This portrayed the Gulf Stream as a deep, narrow boundary between warm Sargasso Sea water and colder continental-slope water rather than a simple river of warm water.

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Iselin directed WHOI from 1940 to 1950 and again from 1956 to 1958. Wartime expansion of acoustics and ocean observation helped turn a mainly summer laboratory into a year-round oceanographic institution.

References: [1]