Robert Ballard is best known for his discovery and exploration of the R.M.S. Titanic (1985- 86). But that was only the beginning. In 1989 he and National Geographic searched the Atlantic for the legendary German battleship Bismarck. In 1992 he partnered with the U.S. Navy and National Geographic to find the lost fleet of Guadalcanal.

Ballard’s adventures and the resulting discoveries have been featured on National Geographic EXPLORER on TBS Superstation in “Secrets of the Titanic” (still the highest-rated documentary to air on cable television—even 12 years after its premiere), “Search for Battleship Bismarck,” “The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal” and others. Ballard has an unparalleled reputation for making the science of undersea exploration exciting.

Ballard is the founder and chief scientist of the JASON Foundation for Education, one of the world’s largest distance-learning programs. Through “telepresence,” hundreds of thousands of school children have accompanied him on undersea explorations of the Sea of Cortez, the Galápagos Islands, the Great Lakes and the Mediterranean Sea. An accomplished author, he has written best-selling books on the Titanic, the Bismarck and the Guadalcanal expedition. Ballard also has written many articles for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine. He and co-author Tony Chiu produced a popular work of fiction, Bright Shark. Ballard was awarded the prestigious Hubbard Medal from National Geographic Society in 1996 for extraordinary accomplishments in coaxing secrets from the world’s oceans and engaging students in the wonder of science.

Together with his wife, Barbara Ballard, he founded Odyssey Expeditions, a company created to handle non-academic projects and endeavors. Odyssey is based in Connecticut.

Dr. Ballard’s academic projects are handled by the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Connecticut, of which he is president. Its 1997 expedition to the Mediterranean, locating the sunken remains of ships that followed ancient trading routes between Rome and Carthage made front-page news around the world. Using U.S. Navy technology, Ballard’s team pulled from Roman shipwrecks on the Mediterranean floor artifacts dating from as early as the second century B.C.

In May 1998 Ballard made history again with the discovery of the U.S.S. Yorktown, the lost aircraft carrier of the World War II Battle of Midway. On the National Geographic Midway Expedition the mission was to locate, map, explore and photograph the lost ships of Midway.

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