Catherine Musemeche
The true story of how oceanographers helped win World War II will be the focus of the next lecture hosted by the University of Texas Marine Science Institute.
The lecture is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 2, at the Patton Center-Marine Science Education, 855 E. Cotter Ave.
The doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the lecture will begin at 7 p.m.
Catherine “Kate” Musemeche, author of “Lethal Tides: Mary Sears and the Marine Scientists who Helped Win World War II,” will talk about her research.
“My book tells the story of how the U.S. Navy was unprepared to enact its island-hopping strategy to reach Japan when World War II began and how oceanographers came to the rescue,” Musemeche said.
She said that anticipating tides, planning for coral reefs and preparing for enemy fire was new ground for the Navy, and with lives at stake it was ground that had to be covered quickly.
So the U.S. turned to Mary Sears, an overlooked oceanographer with untapped talent, who along with a team of colorful and quirky marine scientists, became instrumental in turning the tide of the war in the United States’ favor.
“Sears and her team helped the Navy ‘solve the ocean’ by guiding them to optimal landing sites in the Pacific and by identifying thermoclines, temperature gradients in the ocean, where U.S. submarines could hide from the enemy,” Musemeche said.
Musemeche is a graduate of the University of Texas McGovern Medical School in Houston and the University of Texas School of Law.
Her first book, “Small,” was long-listed for the E.O. Wilson/Pen American Literary Science Award and was awarded the Texas Writer’s League Discovery Prize for Nonfiction in 2015.
Musemeche’s second book, “Hurt,” was named one of the top ten Emergency Services books of the decade.
She also has contributed to Smithsonian Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times’ “Motherlode” blog, KevinMD.com, a social media podcast, Creative Nonfiction magazine and EMS World.
Musemeche lives in Austin.
Antarctic research on seals will be the topic when Lee Fuiman, associate director for UTMSI’s Fisheries and Mariculture speaks on Thursday, Feb. 9.
For more information and for disability accommodations, call Adriana Reza at (361) 749-3152.
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