For our World Ocean Day June 2026 extra-length episode, Seabed 2030 Head of Partnerships Steve Hall interviews Dr Dawn Wright, Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute, better known as ESRI, and a leading exponent of how we understand data and share our discoveries for the greater good.

Dawn is a member of the Strategic Advisory Group for Seabed 2030 and holds many other honours - see here for her 'about us' page on the Seabed 2030 site and click here for her detailed cv. Many other links out there for Dawn, search for 'Deep Sea Dawn' and you'll find many links! Here's one from her page at ESRI

Her dive with Victor Vescovo to the Challenger Deep marked a career highlight in a long story of achievement that started modestly as a sea-going technician on board the JOIDES Resolution as part of the Ocean Drilling Programme in the 1980s.

In the episode Dawn talks about her long career, which has encompassed being a sea-going technician, 17 years as a professor of geography and oceanography at Oregon State University, authoring more than 180 articles and 12 books on marine geographical information systems and more. Her latest book "Mapping the Deep" is available through ESRI and your regular bookseller.

Dawn is a keen cyclist, a fan of Charles Schulz's 'Snoopy', and an inspirational role model.

Other links - YouTube 'Making the Limiting Factor' click here

Laura Trethewey's book The Deepest Map as mentioned by Dawn.

YouTube Lego Stop Motion Diving Challenger Deep click here

Link to the story about Dawn's 'Snoopy' being archived by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich here

Episode recorded and edited by Steve Hall, click here to email. Find out more about Seabed 2030 here. Music and extra narration by Emily Boddy.

Copyright Seabed 2030, 2026.

Revealing Hidden Depths - the Seabed 2030 Podcast
Find out more about our project at www.seabed2030.org
Brought to you by the Nippon Foundation and GEBCO