In the first episode of this iodised and feminine series, Carole Saout-Grit, founder of océans connectés, looks back on her career as a physicist, from Ifremer to her consultancy glazeO. The oceanographer is fighting to bring the marine sciences within everyone’s reach, and to attract young people into a field that has been neglected.
“Women oceanographers (1/12). They have made the ocean their object of study, sometimes even their main concern.Physicists, chemists, geologists or biologists, they all contribute to improving our knowledge of the marine environment. océans connectés goes to meet them throughout France.
By Marion Durand.
Cover photo © Marion Durand
If she had a mantra, transmission would be hers. On Thursday 8 June, World Oceans Day, oceanographer Carole Saout-Grit was everywhere: in the columns of the regional daily Presse Océan, on the set of France 3 Pays de la Loire, or on social networks. All channels are good for putting marine science back at the heart of concerns. For several years now, the physicist has been engaged in a battle that is as necessary as it is urgent: disseminating scientific knowledge and attracting young people to oceanography.
The beginnings of this great challenge can be summed up in two words: océans connectés, an online medium dedicated to marine sciences. To be launched in April 2021, Carole Saout-Grit has been developing this platform since 2016. We needed to inspire people to become marinescientists,” she says. Hence the birth of océans connectés, to share scientific issues and publicise events, training courses and job vacancies in the field.
Although the environment has risen to the top of the list of concerns of 25-34 year-olds – according to a CFA survey for the Journal du Dimanche – the marine sciences are struggling to attract young people. And yet, as well as offering a wealth of career opportunities, there’s an urgent need to get involved! ‘ The scientists I’ve worked with throughout my career are retiring, and we’re going to be faced with a major human resources problem’, warns this mother of three, who fears that the skills and know-how that go with the departure of researchers and the many jobs that go with them will be lost. ‘It’s our role to shed light on and provide solutions for the future; oceanographers and science open up the way to the possible’.
🥳 ça y est, c’est le grand Jour ! Celui des océans !!!!
#journeemondialedesoceans #WorldOceansDay2023
🌟🌟🌟🌟Pour cette occasion, nous sommes heureux de vous présenter notre nouvelle série Océans Connectés :
PORTRAITS : FEMMES OCÉANOGRAPHES🌟🌟🌟
💙abonnez-vous pic.twitter.com/5tzo51rEOv— océans connectés (@OceansConnectes) June 8, 2023
Attracting women, a crucial challenge
According to her, this lack of interest among the younger generation can be explained by a lack of understanding of training courses and professions: ‘oceanography is made up of several disciplines: you can be a biologist, physicist, geologist or chemist’. The profession also suffers from a lack of visibility. The personalities, particularly the women, who make up the oceanography family rarely make the headlines. For Carole Saout-Grit, ‘highlighting the women who make up the marine sciences is crucial for our future’. “Few girls go into these scientific professions, yet they have all the qualities required to excel. I want to say to all female students that they are welcome in these careers’, says the researcher, who wants to set an example.
In 25 years of experience, Carole Saout-Grit has contributed to the advancement of knowledge about the marine environment. In 2001, at the age of 27, she joined the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer). The organisation then launched its ambitious Argo programme, the aim of which is to study ocean variability using beacons spread around the world.
It was by chance that the native of Brittany found herself at the heart of a programme that would revolutionise marine science. She witnessed the development of the first prototype float and numerous pool tests. She remembers the ‘ instruments that gave no sign of life’ and ‘the questions linked to the location and archiving of data’.
Carole Saout-Grit © M.Durand
Witness to a major revolution
The scientist is not only in the front row of a major revolution, she is one of its key players. It is she who analyses the data collected at sea by these autonomous robots. ‘ In twenty years, we have collected more than two million profiles, and 4,000 floats enable us to continuously take the pulse of the ocean on a daily basis”These beacons send valuable information in real time on the temperature and salinity of the seas. They can be used to monitor ocean variability and understand its role in climate. Everything we know today about ocean warming, marine heat waves, rising sea levels, extreme climatic events, etc… we know largely thanks to this large network of floats and the in situ data that scientists collect during their campaigns,’ says the oceanographer-physicist. Without Argo and without the relentless efforts of the international scientific community, we would have made much less progress in understanding the oceans.
Carole Saout-Grit is one of the few scientists who has been involved in this international programme since it was launched. So in 2007, when she left Ifremer’s head office in Brest to move to Nantes with her family, the public institution agreed to maintain this collaboration from a distance. At the time, teleworking was far from the norm, but Ifremer couldn’t do without her expertise. In 2008, she set up glazeO, an independent consultancy specialising in physical oceanography. ‘I bought a computer, signed up for an internet connection and set up a small office in the living room,” she recalls. “It was unheard of at the time, and I had to prove myself!
Deployment of an Argo float in the Southern Ocean© CSIRO
Paving the way for independence
Against all the odds, the physicist made her mark. She has paved the way for the self-employed in a field where, even today, entrepreneurship is unusual, especially when it’s a woman’s word. In fifteen years, her address book has grown and the physicist is short of time rather than clients. From her office in Nantes, she studies the dynamic and physical functioning of the oceans, analyses in situ data collected at sea and provides invaluable support to oceanographic research.
Carole Saout-Grit is proof that the best careers are not always those that are predestined. Growing up by the sea in the small coastal town of Séné (Morbihan), she was more interested in basketball than the open sea.
At school, her interest in science led her to study general physics. ‘I discovered fluid mechanics during my bachelor’s degree at Rennes, and that’s where my interest in oceanography was born’. She then obtained a postgraduate diploma in oceanography, meteorology and environmental physics in Brest. When she joined the French Navy’s Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOM) at the age of 24, she was given responsibility for modelling the Bay of Biscay. For the first time, her future really took shape: ‘I had finally found what I liked and I said to myself “this is my field, I’m going to be a physical oceanographer”’.
Although she has never taken part in an expedition at sea, she hasn’t ruled out joining a campaign in a few years’ time. She dreams of a mission in the sun as much as discovering the Far North. It doesn’t matter, as long as she can ‘take samples, get her hands on data and use tools’, she enthuses. That’s all we can hope for.