Willard Newell Bascom (November 7, 1916 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

– September 20, 2000 in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

), was an engineer, adventurer and scientist, as well as a writer, photographer, painter, miner, cinematographer, and archeologist, who first proposed using

Neoprene Neoprene (also polychloroprene) is a family of synthetic rubbers that are produced by polymerization of chloroprene.Werner Obrecht, Jean-Pierre Lambert, Michael Happ, Christiane Oppenheimer-Stix, John Dunn and Ralf Krüger "Rubber, 4. Emulsion Ru ...

for

wetsuit A wetsuit is a garment worn to provide thermal protection while wet. It is usually made of foamed neoprene, and is worn by surfers, divers, windsurfers, canoeists, and others engaged in water sports and other activities in or on water. Its ...

s to fellow scientist

Hugh Bradner Hugh Bradner (November 5, 1915 – May 5, 2008) was an American physicist at the University of California who is credited with inventing the neoprene wetsuit, which helped to revolutionize scuba diving and surfing. A graduate of Ohio's Miami Un ...

. He authored several books which include the topics of waves, geology, archaeology, poetry, and oceanography. In his book ''Deep water, Ancient Ships'' he first proposed the hypothesis that anoxic water in the Black Sea would preserve

ancient Black Sea shipwrecks Ancient Black Sea shipwrecks found in the Black Sea date to Antiquity. In 1976, Willard Bascom suggested that the deep, anoxic waters of the Black Sea might have preserved ships from antiquity because typical wood-devouring organisms could not su ...

. He led the first test drillings for

Project Mohole Project Mohole was an attempt in the early 1960s to drill through the Earth's crust to obtain samples of the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or Moho, the boundary between the Earth's crust and mantle. The project was intended to provide an ea ...

, and was project director from 1960-1962. Bascom was a consultant to the

Advisory Committee on Government Organization The U.S. President’s Advisory Committee on Government Organization (the Rockefeller Committee) was established by Executive Order 10432 on January 24, 1953.Government Printing Office. U.S. Government Organization Manual 1953-1954. Washington, DC: ...

.
Obituary, LA Times, Oct. 14, 2000 He also served as the Technical Director of the Advisory Committee on Civil Defense of the National Academy of Science and National Research Council. From 1973 to 1985, Bascom served as director of the

Southern California Coastal Water Research Project The Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) is a research institute focusing on the coastal ecosystems of Southern California from watersheds to the ocean. SCCWRP was created as a joint powers authority (JPA), which is an agency ...

, funded by various city and county sewage districts. Bascom took the somewhat controversial view that human

food waste Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about on ...

in sewage could feed growing populations of fish. “In Los Angeles, one-third of the sewage solid waste went through garbage disposals, food that we might have eaten,” he once said. “But whether the food went through us or around us, it makes no difference to sea animals.” In 1980, Bascom was awarded the

Explorers Club The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904, and has served as a meeting point fo ...

Medal, their highest honor.The Explorers Club Medal
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Books

* ''A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea: The Story of the Mohole Project'' (1961) *''Waves and Beaches: The Dynamics of the Ocean Surface'' Anchor Doubleday (1980), (

Science Study Series Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

) *''Deep Water, Ancient Ships: The Treasure Vault of the Mediterranean'', *''The Crest of the Wave: Adventures in Oceanography'' (1988), *''Great sea poetry'', Compass Publications (1969)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bascom, Willard American oceanographers 1916 births 2000 deaths Scientists from New York City