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People / Betty Bunce

Betty Bunce

While visiting a friend for the summer in Woods Hole in the early 1940s, Betty Bunce stumbled upon the opportunity to “take the pulse of bombs” through a contract position at WHOI. After earning a second graduate degree in 1951, Bunce returned to WHOI as a research associate in Physics, blazing a trail for future women scientists.

As one of the few female oceanographers of her time, Bunce’s research focused on the evolving fields of plate tectonics, seismic studies, and seafloor mapping. During a career that spanned from the 1950s-1990s, Bunce was the first woman at WHOI to go to sea for more than a day, serve as chief scientist on a WHOI ship (in 1959), and become a department chair. She also was notably the first woman to dive in Alvin, WHOI’s famous submersible. Known to be kind and loyal, tenacious and curious, she became infamous for using a punching bag on research cruises.

In 1995, Bunce received the Women Pioneers in Oceanography Award, and shortly before she passed away in 2003, a significant fault line in the Puerto Rico Trench was named in honor of her (literally) groundbreaking work.

 

In 1959 Betty Bunce was the first WHOI woman to go to sea on an Institution vessel. She also served as chief scientist aboard a R/V Bear cruise that year. This picture was taken in the Atlantis II main lab in 1977.
In 1959 Betty Bunce was the first WHOI woman to go to sea on an Institution vessel. She also served as chief scientist aboard a R/V Bear cruise that year. This picture was taken in the Atlantis II main lab in 1977.