Who is Roger Revelle? Roger Randall Dougan Revelle (1909-1991) was an internationally respected statesman of science, born in Seattle Washington on March 7, 1909. He changed Scripps Institution of Oceanography from a small biological field station into a world-renowned oceanographic institution, founded the University of California at San Diego, and served as an inspired teacher and researcher. He was the creator of the Office of Naval Research; an expert in population and resources; and the first scientist to recognize issues of carbon dioxide emmissions, the greenhouse effect, and global warming. His influence continues to be felt worldwide. Roger was fascinated by almost everything. His scientific papers sometimes sounded more like adventure stories.

As the associate director from 1948 to 1951 and director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1951 to 1961, Roger Revelle was considered as the director who took the institution to sea. He supported, encouraged and participated in many oceanographic voyages and deeply believed in the value of personally collected data. He believed that an oceanographer had to spend time in the ocean he studied. Even today, with our satellite data, electronic sensors and computers, the data that is being collected at sea by oceanographers is absolutely irreplaceable.

Photographs are from http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/archives/siohstry/revelle-biog.html where a complete biography of Roger Revelle can also be found.