Compass Distinguished Achievement Award

COMPASS DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Compass Distinguished Achievement Award is presented to any individual who has sustained a career marked by achievements that have had significant impact on the fields of marine science and technology.

2025 RECIPIENT - WENDY WATSON-WRIGHT, PH.D.

Wendy Watson-Wright is Chair of the United Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), a body established in 1969 to advise the UN system on marine environmental issues.  She was Executive Secretary and Assistant Director General of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) in Paris (2010-2015) and prior to retiring in 2019, was the inaugural CEO of the Atlantic Canadian-led Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI).  She is an invited member of the World Economic Forum’s Friends of Ocean Action, a Director of the Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility (which operates ROPOS, the Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Science) and an honorary lifetime member of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation (Canada). She has evaluated numerous funding proposals for Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, contributed to the MTS Journal and been an invited plenary speaker at both Oceanology International America and Oi China.  Dr. Watson-Wright held various senior positions within Fisheries and Oceans Canada, including eight years as its Assistant Deputy Minister, Science.  A Killam scholar, she holds a Ph.D. in Physiology from Dalhousie University in Canada.  


PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS OF THE COMPASS DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

  • 2024: Jennifer Wozencraft
  • 2023: Dr. Kankani Katija
  • 2022: Dr. Deidre M. Gibson
  • 2021: Daniel Rudnick
  • 2020: Craig McLean, Capt. (Ret.)
  • 2019: David Rivera
  • 2018: Mike Read
  • 2017: Margaret Davidson
  • 2017: Julius Rockwell, Capt. (Ret.)
  • 2016: Dr. Kathryn Sullivan
  • 2015: Drew Michel
  • 2014: Bjorn Jalving
  • 2013: Dennis "Mike" Egan
  • 2012: Robert Winokur
  • 2011: Bruce Gilman
  • 2009: Calvin A. Gongwer
  • 2008: James R. McFarlane
  • 2007: Andrew M. Clark
  • 2006: Martin Klein
  • 2005: Howard Shatto
  • 2004: Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr. (Ret.)
  • 2003: James Cairns
  • 2002: Norman B. Estabrook
  • 2001: Adm. James D. Watkins (Ret.)
  • 2000: David Himmelfarb
  • 1999: RAdm. J. Bradford Mooney, Jr. (Ret.)
  • 1998: Robert W. Corell
  • 1997: Sylvia A. Earle
  • 1996: Don Walsh
  • 1995: Edward A. Frieman
  • 1994: John Norton Moore
  • 1993: Ned A. Ostenso
  • 1992: William McFarlane
  • 1991: Walter H. Munk
  • 1990: Joseph R. Vadus
  • 1989: W. Stanley Wilson
  • 1988: Robert M. White
  • 1987: Robert B. Abel
  • 1986: James R. McCullough
  • 1985: Phillip Eisenberg
  • 1984: Jerome Namias
  • 1983: Hon. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
  • 1982: Jack W. Boller (Ret.)
  • 1981: Athelstan F. Spilhaus
  • 1980: Robert Cohen
  • 1979: Carl H. Savit
  • 1978: David H. Wallace
  • 1977: Robert D. Ballard
  • 1976: William Q. Wick
  • 1975: William A. Nierenberg
  • 1974: Kenneth O. Emery 
  • 1973: Warren S. Wooster
  • 1972: Butler King Couper
  • 1971: Fred N. Spiess
  • 1970: Willard Bascom
  • 1969: Allyn C. Vine
  • 1968: James M. Snodgrass
  • 1967: Roger Revelle
  • 1966: Henry B. Bigelow