Organisms in their ocean environment
Educated at Harvard, Bigelow joined Alexander Agassiz on ocean expeditions. His later Gulf of Maine surveys related fishes and plankton to temperature, salinity and water movement, producing several substantial regional monographs.
Establishing an institution
In a report for the National Academy of Sciences’ oceanography committee, he advocated studying the sea as an interacting physical, chemical and biological system. After WHOI opened in 1930, he recruited researchers and helped plan the research vessel Atlantis with Columbus Iselin.
References: [1]
An interdisciplinary community
Bigelow brought in specialists including physiologist Alfred Redfield to work across disciplines. Iselin later succeeded him as director and expanded seagoing investigations, while Bigelow remained involved in institutional affairs and research at Harvard.
References: [1]