HARBOR BRANCH - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

HARBOR BRANCH SCIENTIST TO BE INDUCTED INTO WOMEN DIVERS HALL OF FAME THIS WEEKEND

SECAUCUS, N.J., March 19 -- This weekend, Harbor Branch deep-sea explorer and bioluminescence expert Dr. Edith Widder will become one of the newest members of the Women Divers Hall of Fame. This elite group includes such notable women as Zale Parry, star of the Sea Hunt series, and Sylvia Earle, world record holder and National Geographic explorer-in-residence. Harbor Branch president and CEO Shirley Pomponi, who now serves on the group's board of directors, was inducted in 2003.

The Women Divers Hall of Fame began in 2000 (http://www.wdhof.org) and was designed to recognize women leaders who had contributed significantly to the exploration, greater understanding, safety, and enjoyment of the underwater world. Widder's 40-year subsea history has included contributions in all these areas.

Widder was first certified as a scuba diver in 1965 and has been at Harbor Branch for over 15 years. She is also an Adjunct Research Professor in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department of Johns Hopkins University, a Distinguished Scientist Adjunct at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and an Adjunct Professor of Biological Science at both Florida Institute of Technology and Florida Atlantic University. She has participated in over 50research expeditions--30 as chief scientist--and has made over 300 dives in the Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles. She is a certified deep submersible pilot for the single-person submersibles Wasp, Deep Rover, and Deep Worker.

In 1985, working from a Deep Rover, Widder was the first person to make video recordings of bioluminescence in the ocean, which is the light chemically produced by many open-ocean animals. She is a world authority on the measurement of bioluminescence and co-holds a patent on the U.S. Navy's standard device for measuring bioluminescence throughout the world's oceans. Her research in bioluminescence has been featured on the BBC, PBS, Discovery Channel, and in National Geographic. Besides being an author of over 60scientific publications, Widder has produced two children's books on bioluminescence (The Bioluminescence Coloring Book, now in its second printing, and Lucinda's Lamps: A Mermaid's Guide to the Lights in the Sea [in press]), and an award-winning educational video called Secret Lights in the Sea.

New Hall of Fame members will be inducted on Saturday night, March 19, at a black-tie ceremony at Beneath the Sea, the country's largest scuba and dive travel show. The expo is held at the Meadowlands Center in Secaucus, New Jersey.

High-resolution photos of Widder are available upon request. Please contact Mark Schrope at 772-216-0390 or schrope@hboi.edu for more information.

HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution was founded in Ft. Pierce, Fla., in 1971 to support the exploration and conservation of the world's oceans. The institution has held to this mission and grown into one of the world's leading oceanographic institutions with a 500-acre campus, over 200 personnel, and a fleet of sophisticated research ships and submersibles.