40 Facts About Robert Ballard

Robert Duane Ballard was born on June 30,1942 and 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.

Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of John F Kennedy's PT-109 in 2002 and visited Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who saved its crew.

Robert Duane Ballard was born on June 30,1942 in Wichita, Kansas.

Robert Ballard had an older brother, Richard, and younger sister, Nancy Ann.

When Robert Ballard was two years old, his family moved to southern California, where his father worked as a flight test engineer.

Robert Ballard has attributed his early interest in underwater exploration to watching the film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, an adaptation of Jules Verne's 1870 novel.

Robert Ballard enrolled at University of California, Santa Barbara, and joined the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps.

At North American, Robert Ballard worked on its failed proposal to build the submersible Alvin for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

In 1965, Robert Ballard graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, earning undergraduate degrees in chemistry and geology.

Robert Ballard was working towards a PhD in marine geology at the University of Southern California in 1967 when he was called to active duty.

Robert Ballard joined the United States Army in 1965 through the Army's Reserve Officers Training program.

Robert Ballard was designated as an intelligence officer and initially received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve.

Robert Ballard's request was approved, and he was transferred to the Navy Reserve on the reserve active duty list.

Robert Ballard retired from the Navy as a commander in 1995 after reaching the statutory service limit.

Robert Ballard was geologist diver in Alvin during Project FAMOUS, which explored the median rift valley of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in 1974.

In summer 1985, Robert Ballard was aboard the French research ship Le Suroit, which was using the side scan sonar SAR to search for the Titanic wreck.

Robert Ballard was placed on temporary active duty in the Navy, in charge of finding and investigating the wrecks.

Robert Ballard already knew that the Titanic imploded from pressure as well, much the same way the two submarines did, and concluded that it too must have left a scattered debris trail.

Robert Ballard's team made a general search of the Titanic's exterior, noting its condition.

Robert Ballard originally planned to keep the exact location a secret to prevent anyone from claiming prizes from it.

Robert Ballard considered the site a cemetery, and refused to desecrate it by removing artifacts.

In 1988, Robert Ballard published a book, Discovery Of The Titanic: Exploring The Greatest Of All Lost Ships,.

Robert Ballard told the news media that he favored this bid since it would ensure that the memorabilia would be permanently displayed in Belfast and in Greenwich.

Robert Ballard undertook an even more daunting task when he and his team searched off the coast of France for the German Battleship Bismarck in 1989, using an ocean-crawling robot.

Robert Ballard attempted to determine whether it had been sunk by the British or was scuttled by its own crew.

Robert Ballard later published a book about the quest, The Discovery of the Bismarck The discovery was documented for National Geographic in a 1989 James Cameron video Search for the Battleship Bismarck which indicated that the ship had been damaged by torpedoes and shells from British ships.

The actual cause of the sinking was sabotage of the underwater valves by the onboard crew, according to Robert Ballard, who said, "we found a hull that appears whole and relatively undamaged by the descent and impact".

In 1993, Robert Ballard investigated the wreck of RMS Lusitania off the Irish coast.

Robert Ballard found no evidence of boiler explosion and he speculated the ignition of coal dust inside the ship caused a "massive, uncontrollable [second] explosion".

Robert Ballard's book Lost Ships of Guadalcanal locates and photographs many of the vessels sunk at Ironbottom Sound, the strait between Guadalcanal Island and the Floridas in the Solomon Islands.

On May 19,1998, Robert Ballard found the wreck of Yorktown, sunk at the Battle of Midway.

In 2002, the National Geographic Society and Robert Ballard fielded a ship with remote vehicles to the Solomon Islands.

In 2003, Robert Ballard started the Center for Ocean Exploration and Archaeological Oceanography, a research program at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography.

Robert Ballard's research has contributed to the debate over the Black Sea deluge theory.

In 2004, Robert Ballard was appointed professor of oceanography, and currently serves as Director of the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography, at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography.

Robert Ballard was the first speaker to give the Charles and Marie Fish Lecture in Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island in 2002.

Robert Ballard served as the technical consultant on the science fiction series seaQuest DSV during its first season from September 1993 until May 1994.

In 1989, Robert Ballard founded the JASON Project, a distance education program designed to excite and engage middle school students in science and technology.

Robert Ballard began the JASON Project in response to the thousands of letters he received from students following his discovery of the wreck of the Titanic.

Robert Ballard married Marjorie Jacobsen in 1966 and divorced in 1990.