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Nan Bray (1952 - ) is an American marine scientist turned sheep farmer in Australia. Leaving a high profile scientific position, she brings her scientific approach to farming her superfine merino sheep, and has been recognised as one of the Invisible Farmers of Australia.

Biography

Marine Science

Nan Bray was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho and studied engineering physics. In 1980 she completed her PhD at MIT in Oceanography, under the supervision of Nicholas P. Fofonoff, and continued on to become a Physical Oceanographer. Nan Bray built her career in oceanography and was director of physical oceanography at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California, in the US. She moved to Tasmania, first employed as a visiting scientist at Hobart’s CSIRO , before becoming a Chief Marine Scientist there. She has published numerous academic articles on the South Java Current in the Indo-Australian Basin and has long warned of the effects of climate change on the oceans of the world. Her plenary address to the ANZAAS conference in Hobart was called “the ocean planet”. In 1997 Nan Bray gave the The Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society speech.

White Gum Wool

Sheep farming

For three years she worked both at the CSIRO while managing her sheep farm, before stopping her scientific work altogether and becoming a full time sheep farmer. The sheep on her farm are merino wool of the superfine type superfine (15 – 18.5 μm) and make White Gum Wool. She was part of Museum Victoria’s Invisible Farmer project and in 2015 she was Woman of Wool.