Iselin, Columbus O'Donnell

Iselin, Columbus O'Donnell

(1904–71) oceanographer; born in New Rochelle, N.Y. He served the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1932–70), while concurrently teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1959–70) and Harvard (1960–70). He developed the bathythermograph and other deep-sea instruments responsible for saving ships during World War II. He made major contributions to research on ocean salinity and temperature, acoustics, and the oceanography of the Gulf Stream.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.