18 May Robert Ballard
Speaker: Robert Ballard
World Renowned Ocean Explorer, Scientist, and Discoverer of the Titanic
Topics:
- Living the Dream: Adventures in Deep Sea Exploration
- The Personal Account of How the Titanic Was Found, and a Look into the Future
Best known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic, Dr. and speaker Robert 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.
While those discoveries have captured the imagination of the public, Dr. Ballard believes his most important discoveries were of hydrothermal vents and “black smokers” in the Galapagos Rift and East Pacific Rise in 1977 and 1979 along with their exotic life forms living off the energy of the Earth through a process now called chemosynthesis.
In addition to being a National Geographic Society Explorer-In-Residence and a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, Dr. Ballard is the founder and president of the Institute for Exploration (IFE) in Mystic, CT.
Speaker Robert Ballard was born June 30, 1942, in Wichita, KS but moved to California at a very young age and grew up exploring the shore in San Diego. Dr. Ballard has a Ph.D. in marine geology and geophysics from the University of Rhode Island. He spent 30 years at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he helped develop telecommunications technology to create “tele-presence” for his JASON Project, which allows hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren to accompany him from afar on undersea explorations around the globe each year. In 2001, he returned to the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island where he is presently a tenured professor of Oceanography and director of the Center for Ocean Exploration and Archaeological Oceanography.
Living the Dream: Adventures in Deep Sea Exploration
In this keynote speech, through the use of stunning high quality images and personal accounts, Dr. Ballard will present his most recent work in deep water archaeology and the technology of tele-presence. He discusses motivating people to think outside the box, learning how to deal with failure, that failure is just a step along the way to success, motivating children to choose careers in math, science and engineering, and how to live your dream.
Dr. Ballard is a dynamic speaker who will have your audience on the edge of their seats wanting to start a whole new career in exploration!
The Personal Account of How the Titanic Was Found, and a Look into the Future
Dr. Ballard shares his incredible story of the significant discovery of the Titanic, the advanced technology he used for this world famous expedition, and what’s ahead for the future in deep sea exploration.
