Becoming an ocean scientist: learning from surprise

Abstract

An invitation to write a thought piece is an opportunity to reflect on one's early career, when events and choices shaped what we became. Because I teach at a university, I wrote a narrative for those thinking of becoming an ocean scientist, and are now encountering the research literature. It is a chronicle of episodes, each a discovery or surprising event and what I learned. It moves from early memories of the natural world to first attempts at science. A near-fatal surprise led to a course in environmental policy, to a commitment to public good science, and to learning benthic ecology in Woods Hole. Failure at publishing an original finding from a thesis spurred me to self-directed practice in writing scientific prose. Skill at running statistical analyses resulted in a post-doc on a topic where I had no other expertise. Publication success led to a second post-doc and a faculty position in Canada, where I funded three decades of student-oriented research, taught statistics, and wrote a book on ecological scaling from the point of view of an oceanographer. Teaching statistics came with surprises, which I list as further food for thought.