Maurice Ewing was an American geophysicist, oceanographer, and a pioneer of ocean floor research. Ewing was born in Lockney, Texas, on May 12, 1906. Ewing was an instructor of physics at the University of Pittsburgh (1929–1930), then an instructor (1930–1936) and a assistant professor (1936–1940) of physics at Lehigh University. At Lehigh he participated in seismic profiling and oceanographic surveys of the continental shelf with William Bowie, Walter Bucher, and Everett De Galyer. In September 1940, Ewing took a leave of absence from Lehigh University and moved his research group to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. In 1944, he accepted an appointment at Columbia University, where he served as associate professor (1944–1947), professor (1947–1959), and Higgins Professor of Geology (1959–1972). In 1973, he received the National Medal Of Science. During his career he published over 340 scientific papers. He served as president of the American Geophysical Union and the Seismological Society of America. He led over 50 oceanic expeditions. He made many contributions to oceanography, including the discovery of the SOFAR Channel, the invention of the sofar bomb, and did much work fundamental on plate tectonics. He was the chief scientist on board the Glomar Challenger. He originated Project Mogul, an early program to detect Soviet nuclear weapons tests.