PARA ■PAR@ ` ÷TEXT ` ΦRay, Dixy Lee1914╨zoologist and public officialBorn on September 3, 1914, in Tacoma, Washington, Dixy Lee Ray graduated from Mills College with a degree in zoology in 1937 and the next year received an M.A. degree. She taught in public schools in Oakland, California, until 1942, when she entered Stanford University. In 1945, after receiving a Ph.D. from Stanford, she joined the faculty of the University of Washington as an instructor in zoology. She became an assistant professor in 1947 and an associate professor in 1957. During those years her research centered on studies of certain marine crustaceans and also of the various organisms that attack submerged wood. In addition to publishing a number of papers in various journals she edited Marine Boring and Fouling Organisms, 1959. Ray was a leading advocate of ecological research as a prerequisite to understanding the dangers inherent in the unregulated growth of such technologies as chemical manufacture, energy production, and waste disposal. During 1960-62 she was a special consultant in biological oceanography to the National Science Foundation. In 1963 she was appointed director of the newly established Pacific Science Center in Seattle. Under her direction the center quickly developed into an important institution for encouraging public interest in and understanding of science. She served also as special assistant to the director of the National Science Foundation in 1963. In 1969 she was a member of the President╒s Task Force on Oceanography. In July 1972 Ray was nominated by President Richard M. Nixon to a seat on the Atomic Energy Commission. She left the University of Washington and the Science Center upon Senate confirmation of the nomination the next month and became the first woman to undertake a full term on the commission. In February 1973 she was named to succeed James R. Schlesinger as chairman of the commission, a post that made her perhaps the most powerful woman in the federal government. Among her priority concerns were the improvement of employment opportunities for minority group applicants and an expanded program of research on the safety of nuclear reactors. Her blunt, outspoken manner, together with her somewhat nonconformist air, made her a figure of national interest. Following a reorganization of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1974 she moved to the Department of State as assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental scientific affairs. She resigned that post in June 1975. In 1976 she ran as a Democrat for the governorship of Washington and in winning election in November became the second woman, after Ella Grasso of Connecticut, to win a state governorship without being preceded in office by a husband.Ray served out her term as governor to 1980. Among her awards are the United Nations Peace Medal, 1973, the American Exemplar Medal, 1978, the Outstanding Women in Energy Award, 1981 and the Susan B. Anthony Award from the Washington State Legislature, 1987. She has been a consultant to the Argonne National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 1987. In 1990 Ray published Trashing the Planet: How Science Can Help Us Deal with Acid Rain, Depletion of the Ozone and Nuclear Waste, with Lou Guzzo. ╞styl ` ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ 3 !I ⌡ !I !I ! 5¬ " !I 5¬ !I ▌ 5¬ ▐ !I 5¬ !I
