Katy Croff Bell
American marine explorer
Katy Croff Bell is an American marine explorer who has been on more than 30 oceanographic and archaeological expeditions including in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. She is also an American Association for Advancement of Science If/Then Ambassador in recognition of her work to interest girls in STEM careers.
Education
Bell received a bachelor of science in ocean engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000, working with Professor David Mindell in the Deepwater Archaeology group. Following college, she spent 2001 as a John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration. She completed a master's degree in maritime archaeology at the University of Southampton, before moving to the Graduate School of Oceanography in Rhode Island. She was appointed a National Geographic Emerging Explorer in 2006. At the University of Rhode Island, she was awarded the Ada Sawyer Award in 2007 and the Robert McMaster Award in 2008. Bell completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree, "On the Origin of Submarine Sediment Features in the Southern Aegean Sea," at the University of Rhode Island in 2011, under the supervision of Robert Ballard.
Research and career
In 2011, Bell became vice president of the Ocean Exploration Trust. She was Chief Scientist of Robert Ballard's exploration vessel E/V Nautilus, overseeing expeditions to the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, eastern Pacific Ocean and the Aegean Sea.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Katy Croff Bell” as american marine explorer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american marine explorer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q47485403. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2007.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Katy Croff Bell”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Katy Croff Bell primary sources, Katy Croff Bell archive and Katy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Katy Croff Bell”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Katy Croff Bell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.