Robert Ballard
Retired US Navy officer and professor of oceanography / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Robert Duane Ballard (born June 30, 1942) is an American retired Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology: maritime archaeology and archaeology of shipwrecks. He is best known for the discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismarck in 1989, and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in 1998. He discovered the wreck of John F. Kennedy's PT-109 in 2002 and visited Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who saved its crew.
Robert Ballard | |
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Born | Robert Duane Ballard (1942-06-30) June 30, 1942 (age 81) Wichita, Kansas, U.S. |
Education | University of California, Santa Barbara (undergraduate); University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (MS); University of Southern California (PhD); University of Rhode Island (PhD) |
Employer | University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography |
Known for | Ocean exploration and underwater archaeology; discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic, the battleship Bismarck, the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, and John F. Kennedy's PT-109 |
Awards | Kilby International Awards (1994) The Explorer Medal (1995) Hubbard Medal (1996) Caird Medal (2002) |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/ | |
Years of service | 1965–1995 |
Rank | Commander |
Despite his long successes in shipwrecks, Ballard considers his most important discovery to be that of hydrothermal vents. Ballard has also established the JASON Project and leads ocean exploration on the research vessel E/V Nautilus.[1][2][3]