10 Facts About Jacques Piccard

Jacques Piccard was a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, known for having developed underwater submarines for studying ocean currents.

Jacques Piccard initially started out his career by teaching economics at University of Geneva while continuing to help his father improve the bathyscaphe to demonstrate its potential for operating in deep waters.

Jacques Piccard commanded the first non-stop balloon flight around the world in March 1999 and the first solar-powered plane flight around the world in December of 2009.

Jacques Piccard sought financial help from the US Navy, which at that time was exploring various ways of designing submarines for underwater research.

Jacques Piccard was welcomed to the US to demonstrate his bathyscaphe, now named the Trieste.

The historic dive received worldwide attention, and Piccard wrote an account of it, Seven Miles Down, with Robert S Dietz, a renowned geologist who had helped plan the mission.

Jacques Piccard was awarded the Howard N Potts Medal in 1972.

In 1981, Jacques Piccard became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.

On 1 February 2008, Jacques Piccard was honored Doctor honoris causa at the Catholic University of Louvain.

Jacques Piccard was the founder of the Foundation for the Study and Protection of Seas and Lakes, based in Cully, Switzerland.