In the second episode of this series, we talk to Breton oceanographer Claire Gourcuff, scientific coordinator of the European Euro-Argo network.
“Women oceanographers (2/12). 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
The ocean has always been close to Claire Gourcuff’s heart. When she was little, she used to sail on the family yacht alongside her parents, who loved the open sea and were ‘ecologists before their time’. As soon as she was a teenager and old enough to take the helm, she set off alone every summer from the port of Douarnenez in Finistère. She then experimented with gliding and easily tamed the waves of the Crozon peninsula. Since then, her love of the sea has never left her.
Claire Gourcuff, 42, is in charge of scientific coordination at Euro-Argo, the European component of the international Argo programme, which studies the state of the ocean using submerged floats spread around the world.
The oceanographer joined the European entity, based on the site of the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer), in 2016, two years after its launch. This is where she welcomes us, under a cloudy sky and in the calm of the commune of Plouzané, near Brest.
Claire Gourcuff is the scientific leader of this seven-strong team. She coordinates all the research activities of the twelve European countries involved in the programme.
As well as monitoring the 4,000 active floats on a daily basis, the oceanographer is involved in the deployment of the new OneArgo programme, which aims to set up a network of new-generation probes. Two types of floats make up this network: Deep-Argo floats, capable of diving to depths of 4,000 or 6,000 metres, and BGC-Argo floats incorporating six additional parameters for biogeochemical measurements. The new floats will continue to measure salinity and water temperature, but will also provide information on pH and oxygen concentration,” explains the specialist. To carry out this project successfully, we need to adapt the data centres, develop procedures for studying this new information, train experts and find funding.
© Euro-Argo ERIC Office Team
“We go into classrooms with a float, it’s magic !”
The ocean remains an environment full of mysteries, yet it plays a vital role in the Earth’s climate. “We still have a lot to learn. Current global warming proves that we need to know more, because the general circulation of the oceans is closely linked to the Earth’s climate,” says Claire Gourcuff. It’s exciting to be able to contribute to the understanding of this element that is so much a part of our lives’.
For the past year, she has been working in schools as part of Culture océan’s Adopt a float educational programme, an initiative of the Institut de la mer de Villefranche (IMEV) designed to introduce young people to the oceans. Each class adopts an Argo float and gives it a name. The pupils follow the float as it travels across the seas, receiving in real time the observations collected by the craft. When we go into the classrooms with this robot, it’s magical,’ she says with emotion. They look at it, they can touch it, they’re really intrigued. The discussion also provided an opportunity for the speakers to talk about the research associated with these probes. “For us scientists, these moments give us a link with society. When we capture the attention of children, we also reach out to their parents.
Since the start of the new school year, Claire Gourcuff has been meeting pupils from four classes in Guern, Morbihan (France). As European scientific spokeswoman for the Argo programme, she hopes to develop these initiatives at EU level. “The ocean is both exciting and fascinating for many people. This programme is a way of highlighting our work, but above all it’s an excuse to talk about the oceans and climate issues such as currents and tides’, explains this enthusiastic populariser of science.
Claire Gourcuff © M .Durand
These meetings are also a way of attracting young people to oceanography, ‘a subject often perceived as too complicated’. During her studies at Grenoble, Claire Gourcuff was one of only a handful of girls studying fluid mechanics. There were five of us out of thirty in my year’, she recalls. I think that the gender mix also depends on the many disciplines in the marine sciences. Women are less inclined towards maths and physics-related specialisms, but they are more present in experimental oceanography’.
Today, the forty-something says she is ‘ lucky’ to have studied and worked in environments that encourage gender diversity. ‘I came into this profession with many strong female figures’. But in practice, this mother of two little girls admits that she has difficulty finding female oceanographers in all fields:“When I organise conferences, I take great care to ensure that there is a certain equality in the speakers. It’s not always easy, there’s a shortage of women in senior positions.
Diplomatic and organised
For Claire Gourcuff, oceanography was not a vocation. A sailor at heart and used to scanning the horizon, she first became interested in the weather. From a very early age, she learned to distinguish between the tides, to recognise a favourable wind or dangerous swells. “When you go out to sea, you realise just how vast the ocean is. You’re on the water, in the middle of nothing, it’s fascinating’.
After spending ‘hours in the guidance counsellor’s office’ , she went on to do a DEUG in mathematics, with a physics option, in Brest before moving to Isère to do a Masters in fluid mechanics. ‘Oceanography made perfect sense at the time’, she recalls.
After two years in Grenoble, she returned to her native region to take a DEA (equivalent to a Master’s degree). For her thesis, she chose to study the variability of the circulation of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre (marine eddies) using satellite measurements and data collected at sea.
She began her career working on a project that would later give rise to the Euro-Argo programme. At the time, the 24-year-old engineer was deciphering the data delivered by the floats. Almost 20 years later, Claire Gourcuff is still scrutinising this precious information, but no longer in an executive capacity. She now co-leads the international Argo data management team. For the past year, this mission has been added to the many tasks that the oceanographer carries out on a daily basis: ‘What’s exciting about this job is that you get to multitask. Some tasks are interchangeable with my colleagues’.
Unaccustomed to talking about her career, Claire Gourcuff is willing to play the game to ‘attract young people’ to a profession that is vital for the future. ‘As scientific coordinator of a European ocean observation programme, I’d say you have to be fairly diplomatic, very organised and speak English’. Let’s hear it!
TO READ IN THE SAME SERIES
Carole Saout-Grit, the independent oceanographer at the forefront of a scientific revolution