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Interview conducted by Laura Harkewicz

Download the Paper (608 K, PDF file) - March 14, 2006 Tell a colleague about it. Printing Tips: Select 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog if you have trouble printing.

ABSTRACT:
Elizabeth Louise “Pooh” Venrick was interviewed in her office on December 15, 2005. Venrick was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 21, 1941. She received a bachelor of arts degree from Pomona College in Claremont, California in 1962. She received her Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego (SIO) in 1969. Her dissertation topic was The Distribution and Ecology of Oceanic Diatoms in the North Pacific. Her graduate advisor was Dr. Edward W. Fager. In 1964 she went on her first scientific cruise, the Ursa Major, conducting research she used in her dissertation. From 1962–1965 she was Sverdrup Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. She was the first Ph.D., the first woman, and the first expert in marine science to be appointed by Governor Edward. G. “Jerry” Brown to serve on the California Fish and Game Commission (from 1976–1982). She also served on the Scientific Statistical Committee for the Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the California Condor Advisory Committee. She is currently the co-director of Scripps Institution’s Integrative Oceanography Division (IOD). She is also the Scripps director of the CalCOFI (California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations) program. The interview stressed Venrick’s experiences as an individual who has spent her entire professional career at SIO. We discussed her experiences on board research cruises, as an SIO administrator, and her perspective as a woman scientist, among other topics. We also discussed her views as a biological oceanographer at an institution that has often stressed the importance of physical oceanography. Venrick stressed the importance of data collection over time, systematic evaluation, and the interrelationships between organisms and their environment in her work.

SUGGESTED CITATION:
Elizabeth Louise Venrick, "Oral History of Elizabeth Louise Venrick" (March 14, 2006). Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives. Oral History: venrick.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/sio/arch/oh/venrick