Edith Widder is an oceanographer, a marine biologist, and the co-founder, CEO and senior scientist at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, where she is developing technologies for protecting the ocean’s estuaries. She has given three TED talks, and been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, the Explorers Club Citation of Merit and, in 2020, the inaugural Captain Don Walsh Award for Ocean Exploration. In 2012 she helped capture the first footage of live giant squid in the deep ocean. Born in Massachusetts, she spent part of her childhood in Melbourne and later received her PhD from the University of California.