Robert Ballard

Robert Ballard: Profile

Among the most accomplished and well known of the world's deep-sea explorers, Robert Ballard is best known for his historic discovery of the sunken R.M.S. Titanic. During his long career he has conducted more than 120 deep-sea expeditions using the latest in exploration technology, and he is a pioneer in the early use of deep-diving submarines.

Ballard has pioneered distance learning in the classrooms of America and around the world with the JASON Project, an award-winning educational program that reaches more than 1.7 million students and 38,000 teachers annually. He has received prestigious awards from the Explorers Club and the National Geographic Society—the Explorers Medal and the Hubbard Medal, respectively—as well as the Lindbergh Award. In 2003 President George W. Bush presented him with the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal in the Oval Office of the White House.

Ballard is president of the Institute for Exploration, scientist emeritus from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and director of the newly created Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, where he is in search of ancient lost history in the depths of the sea.