Born and raised in the Chicago area—far from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts—Bruce Mate showed an early aptitude for science, working at the Chicago Academy of Sciences while still in high school. In 1967, after studying electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, he married his junior-high school sweetheart Mary Lou and moved to Oregon, where he began his lifelong research into marine mammal behavior. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Oregon the following year and a Ph.D. in marine biology from that institution in 1973. 

 

He was then hired by Oregon State University as a post-doctoral Fellow in biochemistry. Two years later, he moved to Newport, Oregon, to work at the Hatfield Marine Science Center as a marine biologist. There, he developed the Marine Mammal Institute, an international multi-disciplinary center for marine mammal research and preservation, which he directs.

 

Additionally, Dr. Mate is a co-founder of the state of Oregon’s Whale Watching Spoken Here program, which trains about 400 volunteers and reaches more than 30,000 tourists each year, and he is a leader in the development of satellite-monitored radio telemetry for tagging and tracking manatees, pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins, white-sided dolphins, gray whales, right whales, bowhead whales, humpback whales, sperm whales, fin whales, and blue whales. He has served widely in international professional organizations, and his work is often featured in documentaries and magazines.

 

Dr. Mate will join our September 1, 2012, sailing to the Australs & Society Islands, which features a call on Rurutu, an Australs island that is a special sanctuary for humpback whales. He will share his expertise on these graceful mammals during a series of lectures throughout the week.