Doug Webb (left) and Dave Fratantoni (right)

Argo would not exist without the pioneering efforts of a few key innovators in ocean autonomy. One was Doug Webb, who passed away on November 11, 2024.

A brilliant ocean engineer, Doug worked across many aspects of ocean observation technology. Breck Owens notes ‘I think part of his genius was his broad interests and putting together the appropriate technology for oceanographic instrumentation.’

Doug’s contributions to Argo are huge, from pioneering vehicles with buoyancy engines through to putting the APEX family of floats into production at his family company, and thus supplying floats to many national Argo programs.  The success of Argo owes much to Doug’s work.

Read more of Doug’s interesting life and accomplishments here:

https://www.whoi.edu/who-we-are/about-us/people/obituary/douglas-c-webb/