A physical oceanographer and engineer, Davis’ development of the sounding oceanographic Lagrangian observer (SOLO) float freed ocean exploration from the limits of shipborne measurements that are inherently constrained by costs and the oceans’ own vastness, as well as the observational limits of satellites.

The float he developed in the 1990s became the backbone of an international network known as Argo, which the New York Times described in 2014 as “one of the scientific triumphs of the age.” The network now has roughly 4,000 floats distributed around the world, supported by contributions from 30 countries.