Over the last calendar week , many citizenry on Twitter have turned into amateur detectives in an attempt to find a scientist that attended the 1971 International Conference on the Biology of Whales . Not the kind of thing you ’d expect to go viral .
Whilst doing research for a rule book on the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 , writer Candace Jean Andersen falter across a picture inhume in an article about the conference . What catch Andersen ’s center was that there was only one adult female in attending .
“ watch this lonely fair sex in the grouping , I want to know who she was , ” Andersen toldSmithsonian.com . “ Surely she ’s of some importance if she ’s at this league . ”
Frustratingly , as well as being the only woman scientist at the case , she was the only person of almost 40 people in the photo who was n’t named in the caption .
In a farseeing shot , Andersen asked her Twitter following to aid her identify the whodunit scientist .
It cursorily captured the interest of the Internet .
Several people suggested she was Suzanne Montgomery Contos , who worked in adminstration at the Smithsonian and who organize the conference .
This hypothesis was rapidly put to rest by Contos herself , who chipped in on the screw thread to confirm it was n’t her . However , researcher at the Smithsonian were now aware of the font .
When other Twitter users floated the name Sheila Minor Huff , Dee Allen Link of the Smithsonian check with colleague who may have been at the conference . They confirm this was indeed her .
Andersen track down Huff through Facebook , and ended up confabulate with her about her career , CNN report .
" At the time this photo was taken , Sheila had a BS in Biology , " Andersen tweeted . " She was working in her first position with the Federal government . Her chief , Clyde Jones , took her to that league . "
She went on to become a scientist for 35 years , working on some interesting projects during her career …
… as well as improving teaching for schools , regularly giving talking to to elementary and high school biology bookman .
Huff was appointed to the Smithsonian Women ’s Council betimes on in her career , before follow up on environmental sciences and welcome an MS from George Mason University .
She proceed on to work for several federal agencies before move to the US Department of the Interior in Washington , DC , where she take a top - degree lieu .
Now retired , she is focused on her grandchildren and enjoys belly dancing class and driving around in her transmutable , CNN reports .
