William Maurice Ewing

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1906-1974

American Geologist, Geophysicist and Physicist

William Maurice Ewing, known as "Doc" to his associates, was a pioneer in the development of techniques to study ocean basins, which at that time were still essentially a mystery. He also made fundamental contributions to the study of earthquake origins.

With a working scholarship, Ewing studied at the Rice Institute in Houston (1926-1931), earning a Ph.D. in physics. He had already become interested in ocean crust and sediment study during summer jobs prospecting for oil in the Gulf of Mexico with other future figures in marine geophysics—Albert D. Crary and H. N. Rutherford. In 1924 they were on a 22-foot (6.7 m) whaleboat throwing packages of explosive blasting gelatin over the side—a way of obtaining seismic reflection profiles of the continental shelf that was improved by Ewing. He taught physics in Pennsylvania, first at the University of Pittsburgh, then Lehigh, but was turning more toward marine geological research, conductingpart-time work at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Because of his research in the travel of seismic waves through strata he was asked in 1934 by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and the American Geophysical Union to study the continental shelf of North America. At Woods Hole he took to the sea, developing methodical seismic survey procedures using seismic reflection and refraction techniques for the open ocean. From data gathered from the Atlantic basins, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Norwegian, and Mediterranean bottom profiles, he showed the ocean floor crust to be much thinner than the continental crust. He also improved methods for studying gravitational anomalies over the ocean.

William Maurice Ewing. (AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced with permission.)

After World War II, during which he conducted important marine acoustical research for the U.S. Navy, Ewing accepted a position in the geology department at Columbia University in New York. At that time, money and land were donated to the school to start the prestigious Lamont Geological Laboratory (today the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) in Palisades, New York. Ewing became its first director, remaining at the post for 25 years. One of his early wishes was that Lamont be an oceanographic institution as well. Ewing introduced the use of deep underwater photography and developed more seagoing seismic methods, involving earthquake waves to obtain oceanic crust topography. He introduced the use of sonar (propagated sound waves) for topographic soundings and the use of a submersible coring machine to take longer ocean sediment samples (the Ewing corer).

By 1952 Ewing was conducting extensive ocean sediment sampling. He directed research vessels to tow magnetometers to obtain measurements of changing magnetic fields. Sediment cores validated the phenomenon of trapped magnetic fields. During the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958) Ewing continued this research with his colleagues; they discovered a central rift valley associated with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and confirmed their hypothesis that great mid-ocean ridges encircle Earth. Others took these leads to form the foundation for plate tectonic theory, which Ewing did not accept until relatively late. He did propose with other researchers, however, that earthquakes were associated with central oceanic rifts around the globe. He further hypothesized that sea-floor spreading was probably global and episodic.

Ewing devoted himself to data acquisition rather than theory—the first essential, the latter overabundant—yet his efforts were paramount to both. Many of his published works were collaborations with colleagues, such as Propagation of Sound in the Ocean (1948) and The Floors of the Oceans (1959). In 1972 he returned to his native Texas, joining the University of Texas at Galveston. He received many scientific awards. Ewing was honored on his death by the American Geophysical Union, when it instituted the Maurice Ewing Medal in 1974, honoring individuals for work in marine geophysics and technology.

During the last decades of the twentieth century there was an increasing call to promote gender equity in college and secondary school science and mathematics classrooms. Compared to their male counterparts, many studies continued to show that disproportionately fewer female students took elective science courses at the secondary school or college level. Consequently, disproportionately fewer women pursued university degrees or careers in mathematics, science and engineering.

Despite continual gains started in the early 1970s, near the end of the twentieth century women still comprised a relatively small percentage (15%) of the scientists and engineers in the United States and only about 10% of university-level science faculty. In 1991 the American Association of University Women began a series of studies and reports investigating the causes of the gender gap in science and science education. The AAUW studies set out, in part, to debunk disputed data that suggested a biological basis to the gender gap in scientific achievement. In 1996 the National Science Foundation also undertook studies of student proficiency in science. The NSF report of its findings ultimately suggested significant differences between male and female secondary school students with regard to achievement in, and attitudes toward, math and science regardless of race, socioeconomic status, and other demographic factors. The AAUW claimed that its studies substantiated perceptions that classroom level gender bias damaged female students' self-esteem, school achievement, and career aspirations. Among the factors consistently identified in the AAUW reports as perpetuating the gender bias was differential treatment by teachers that steered girls away from math and science courses.