Robert Ballard

Best known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic, Dr. Robert D. Ballard has succeeded in tracking down numerous other significant shipwrecks, including the German battleship Bismarck, the lost fleet of Guadalcanal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown (sunk in the World War II Battle of Midway), and John F. Kennedy's boat, PT 109. In addition to being a National Geographic Society explorer in residence and a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, Ballard is the founder and president of the Institute for Exploration at Mystic Marinelife Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut. Specializing in deep-ocean archaeology, IFE's goal is to establish this new field of research utilizing evolving technology such as advanced mapping and imaging systems, underwater robotics and manned submersibles.

Born June 30, 1942, in Wichita, Kansas, Robert D. Ballard grew up in San Diego, California.  He earned a Ph.D. in marine geology and geophysics from the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography, where he is currently a full-time faculty member. He spent 30 years at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, where he spearheaded the development of manned submersibles and remotely operated vehicles for marine research. While at WHOI he founded the Deep Submergence Laboratory. 

In 1989, Dr. Ballard created the JASON Project, an educational program designed to inspire in students a lifelong passion to pursue learning in science, math and technology through exploration and discovery. Ballard would later develop telecommunications technology to create "telepresence" for his JASON Project, which today allows hundreds of thousands of school children to accompany him from afar on undersea explorations around the globe.  

Dr. Ballard has 13 honorary degrees and 6 military awards; he served in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a commander for 30 years. In 1996, he received the National Geographic Society's prestigious Hubbard Medal for "extraordinary accomplishments in coaxing secrets from the world's oceans and engaging students in the wonder of science." In 2003, he received the National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  He has published 18 books, numerous scientific papers and a dozen articles in National Geographic magazine. Ballard also has been featured in several National Geographic television programs, including the record-breaking Secrets of the Titanic.  He is a National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence.

Throughout his career Ballard has conducted more than one a hundred deep-sea expeditions, using both manned and unmanned vehicles.  Beginning in 1973, Ballard participated in his first international expedition, Project FAMOUS (the French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study). This was the first manned exploration of the Mid-Ocean Ridge which helped to confirm the newly emerging theory of Plate Tectonics and won wide acclaim within the oceanographic community.  By 1979, Ballard was scientist in charge of the ANGUS exploration program on the East Pacific Rise that discovered the first "Black Smokers," a discovery that helped for the first time to explain the chemistry of the world's oceans. The smoking chimneys were actually towers of almost pure crystalline zinc sulfide, which created a mineral rich environment to support unique evolutionary variants of common fish and snails. 

In 1982 Ballard organized the Deep Submergence Laboratory (DSL) at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to begin developing the sophisticated remotely operated vehicle system known as Argo-Jason -- a deep-towed vehicle carrying sensitive video cameras connected to the surface by fiber-optic cable through which broadcast quality images could be transmitted.  Developed with support of the navy and tested in 1984, Ballard would use this system for his best-known expedition, the discovery of the RMS Titanic. 
 
Ballard's most recent discoveries include the Mediterranean Sea finds of sunken remains of ships along ancient trade routes (1997), two ancient Phoenician ships off Israel, the oldest shipwrecks ever found in deep water (1999), and four 1,500-year-old wooden ships--one almost perfectly preserved--in the Black Sea (2000).  In 2003 he used satellite and Internet 2 technologies via the Immersion Project to bring thousands of students around the world into direct contact with his expedition team while on location in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea. 

Dr. Ballard is presently developing a joint M.A./Ph.D program in the new field of archaeological oceanography at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography.  He is a member of the NOAA Science Advisory Board and serves as one of 16 Commissioners on the President's Commission on Ocean Policy.  Dr. Ballard lives in Connecticut.