USNS Bruce C. Heezen (T-AGS 64) is a Pathfinder class

Pathfinder class survey ship

The Pathfinder class survey ships are owned by the United States Navy and operated by Military Sealift Command for the Naval Oceanographic Office . They have entirely civilian crews, including scientists from NAVOCEANO .-References:*...

 oceanographic survey ship. It is the fifth ship in the class. She is named after Bruce C. Heezen

Bruce C. Heezen

Bruce Charles Heezen was an American geologist. He is most famous as being the leader of a team from Columbia University which mapped the Mid-Atlantic Ridge during the 1950s....

, who was the leader of the team from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 that discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. It separates the Eurasian Plate and North American Plate in the North Atlantic, and the African Plate from the South...

during the 1950s. The ship was the first Navy vessel to be named by civilians. Nine students from Oaklawn Elementary School in Cranston, RI named the ship after winning a contest sponsored by the Navy. Amanda Baillargeon, James Coogan, Meagan Durigan, Stephen Fish, Patricia Gumbley, John Lucier, Sara Piccirilli, Dana Scott, and Rebecca Webber were led by their teacher Marilyn Remick.

External links

• USNS Heezen official web site