1904-1971

American oceanographer who specialized in analysis of the Gulf Stream current and made early and fundamental contributions to research on ocean salinity and temperature distributions. Iselin became the first director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, turning it into a premier institution. His research spanned the properties of underwater acoustics and involved the investigation of world current variations. During the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958) he worked with Britain's John C. Swallow on the delineation of the Gulf Stream. Iselin also taught physical oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard.