"One of the take-home messages is just how important it was to participate on Glomar Challenger and JR in terms of developing my own career"

Description

Keir Becker has sailed on 22 expeditions of scientific ocean drilling. For this conversation, he focuses on his four Glomar Challenger expeditions, including the technology and communications that existed during those years - and what it was like to receive updates via Telex on the Iranian hostage crisis. Keir shares short stories ranging from food at sea to the establishment of JOIDES, to what it was like being on Glomar Challenger when it was announced the ship would be terminated.

Keir ends with this important quote: "Now the other big thing to take home about the Challenger, or at least my time on the Challenger, was that the senior scientists I got to sail with ended up being colleagues for much of my career. And so what I'm worried about for the younger generation, when we stop the JOIDES Resolution operations, is that no matter what kind of virtual expeditions or virtual science that develops, it just won't compare to developing personal contacts [at sea]."

Conversation was recorded February 19, 2024. Photos provided by Keir Becker include him on Glomar Challenger in 1981, and a photo of the DSDP Leg 70 science party.

*Correction - DARPA in the conversation was still ARPA in 1981, the Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Participants

• Keir Becker
  
• Laura Guertin
  

Interview By

• Laura Guertin