Robert Ballard is an accomplished oceanographer perhaps best known for his discovery of Titanic’s ruins in 1985. The images he captured of the luxury liner’s wreck captured the nation and sparked America’s curiosity. Credited with numerous awards and countless discoveries, Robert is the leading deep-sea explorer today.

 

Robert’s discovery of life in the hydrothermal vents of the Galapagos Islands in 1977 was critical to all of science—the tubeworms that he found subsisted on bacteria, disproving the belief that all living things relied on photosynthesis, the energy from sunlight. 

 

Robert is a pioneer in the use of deep-diving submarines, conducting over 120 deep-sea missions with modern technology throughout the course of his career. He has received the Explorers Medal from the Explorers Club, the Hubbard Medal from the National Geographic Society, and the Lindbergh Award. In 2003, President George W. Bush presented Robert with the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal.

 

Robert has also been a leading figure in distance learning through his JASON project, an award-winning educational program that involves more than 1.7 million students and 38,000 teachers each year. He is the president of the Institute for Exploration, scientist emeritus from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and director of the new Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. He has published over 60 scientific articles in Science, Earth, Journal of Geophysical Research, and more.