About Dawn Wright
Dawn Jeannine Wright (born April 15, 1961) is an American geographer and oceanographer. She is a leading authority in the application of geographic information system (GIS) technology to the field of ocean and coastal science and played a key role in creating the first GIS data model for the oceans. Wright is Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri). She has also been a professor of geography and oceanography at Oregon State University since 1995 and is a former Oregon Professor of the Year as named by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Wright was the first Black female to dive to the ocean floor in the deep submersible ALVIN. On July 12, 2022, she became the first and only Black person to dive to Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, and to successfully operate a side scan sonar at full-ocean depth. == Early life and education == Wright graduated with a Bachelor of Science cum laude in geology from Wheaton College in 1983, earned a Master of Science in oceanography from Texas A&M University in 1986, and an Individual Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Physical Geography and Marine Geology from University of California, Santa Barbara in 1994. In 2007, she received a Distinguished Alumna Award from UCSB and was also a commencement speaker for UCSB College of Letters and Science. == Career == Wright's research interests include mapping of seafloor spreading zones and coral reefs, spatial analysis and geographic information systems as applied to the marine environment. Wright co-edited one of the first books on marine GIS and is widely known as one of the most influential researchers within her fields. Another influential work is an article published in 1997, which was widely cited for its analysis of the perception of GIS among geographers in the early 1990s.
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