Science and Sails (Memoir of first female oceanographer in a changing world)

This memoir by Kathryn Anne Burns charts the career of the first woman graduate from the most prestigious oceanographic institute in the world, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program. The first chapter is the struggle and achievements of a graduate student who discovers a new test that will revolutionize efforts at monitoring toxins in the marine environment. The time scale is the early nineteen seventies at the beginning of global awareness of the dangers of unchecked coastal development that was ruining the ecological functioning of critical estuaries. Kathy is caught up in the urgency of saving the Oceans and is launched into a career which until this time was strictly a man’s domain and has to overcome the prejudices and downright hostility of male colleagues and associates who want to preserve their exclusivity.

Subsequent chapters follow Kathy and her husband, Robbie, around the world as Kathy takes up positions in Melbourne Australia, Monaco, Bermuda Biological Station, and then back to the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville, Australia and their adventures in sailing between these positions on the world globe. Most people fly on commercial airlines but these two decided that was too tame, stocked their yacht with provisions and set sail. Not even Kathy’s chronic seasickness deters her and you have to wonder at her drive and determination, no doubt the same impetus to get her PhD degree at such a transitional time for women in science.