Fifty Years of NYSMEA

Fun facts from the formative years:

• NYSMEA visited LuLu, the mother ship for Alvin in 1974 for the NMEA conference. That year Alvin had a new titanium personnel sphere enabling dives to 12,000 feet. The sub departed on Project FAMOUS, a French-American expedition to investigate the Mid-Atlantic Ridge for the first time.
• Our first conference was at the Suffolk County Community College Campus in Selden, L.I. Walther Smith was the chair of the department and on the founding Board of NYSMEA. Walter's specialty was "algalogy," also known as phytology or the study of algae. One of his claims to fame was that he discovered carrageenan could be used as a stabilizer in gefilte fish!
• In 2006, when NYSMEA hosted the NMEA Conference in New York, Lou Siegel put his 1974 NMEA Conference Tee featuring a Yellow Submarine (Beatles) up for auction!