Arete Associates

About Us

Areté was founded in 1976 by five scientists, tasked by the Department of Defense to help solve the challenge of detecting weak signals in heavy ocean clutter. For this challenge, Areté’s founders applied “first principles thinking,” an Aristotelian method of problem solving that assesses the fundamental truths about the science at hand, not operating on assumption and past history.

As part of its research, Areté modeled sea waves, white caps, and surf to discover how factors such as current, temperature, and weather affect the ocean.