ABSTRACT
We all too often take for granted that young women and men today can consider studying oceanography at a university and following one of many career paths. Professional organiza tions and journals flourish on national and international levels, conferences are regularly held, academic programmes in ocean science ensure a supply of practitioners, while a relatively stable network of patronage and publics sustains research and pedagogical activity. As we enter the post-Cold War era, with its greater uncertainty as to funding and rationale for research, we might gain some inspiration from the recent past when what we recognize as professional oceanography did not exist. Neither the present contours of science nor its relations with society are inevitable or natural. Changing political, economic and cultural circumstances provided opportunities and constraints for scientists to define and pursue oceanographic research programmes. By telling a tale of one such scientist, Harald Ulrik Sverdrup, I would like to open a window onto some of the social processes, human drama and moral values that entered into constructing the professional study of ocean circulation. His story - and those of many others - will help us appreciate what it meant and still means to be an ocean scientist.
