[PSUBS-MAILIST] Explorer Creating Deep-Sea Network

[plutomark@astate.edu]

From: Mark Steed

Thought I would pass this along- Mark

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Explorer Creating Deep-Sea Network 
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By PENELOPE OVERTON
The Hartford Courant

April 30, 2002

MYSTIC -- The deep-sea explorer who discovered the remains of the Titanic said Monday that he was founding the world's first academic program devoted to the study of deep-sea archaeology at the University of Rhode Island.

Lyme resident Robert Ballard said his decision to join the URI faculty and create the new Institute for Marine Cultural Research would complement, not replace, the work that he was already doing at his Institute for Exploration in Mystic.

"My plan is to develop a network of people and places that will work together to explore the exciting secrets of the deep, blue sea," Ballard said. "This is about creating one big team of people all working toward the same goal."

Officials at Mystic Aquarium, which has just completed a $52 million expansion and has heavily promoted its ties to Ballard, said they were excited about the addition of URI to the diaspora of Ballard people, places and projects.

"We already enjoy the benefits of the many relationships and alliances that come with Dr. Ballard's extraordinary work," said spokeswoman Lisa R. Jaccoma. "We can't wait to see what kind of exciting things come of this ground-breaking union." Ballard hopes to train the next generation of deep-sea explorers in the combined fields of oceanography, engineering, maritime history, anthropology and archaeology in the new undergraduate and graduate programs planned at URI.

No other university in the world offers a deep-sea exploration program, he said.

He sees the URI program as the incubator that will breed the next generation of deep-water archaeologists, the ones who will someday take his place, and hoped it would become his legacy to an academic field still in its infancy.

Ballard said he would continue his work with the University of Connecticut's Avery Point, which opened its Marine Sciences Research Center last fall, but said his primary work focuses on deep water, while Avery Point focuses on coastal studies.

The newly minted researchers will join Ballard on his expeditions, which will be funded by various Ballard supporters, including Mystic, National Geographic and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

The final results of Ballard's expeditions, including trips to the Channel Islands and the Black Sea planned for this summer, will be displayed to the public in rotating exhibits at the Mystic Aquarium, he said. "That is what Mystic does best," Ballard said. "This will only strengthen what is happening at Mystic by adding new scientists, new expeditions and new ideas into the mix of what we can accomplish and display there."

The final link in the chain, but the one that Ballard calls the most important, is the JASON Project, which uses the Internet to bring students from across the country on his deep-sea explorations and introduce them to marine science. 
Copyright 2002, Hartford Courant