  | An oceanographic superstar makes URI’s Bay Campus his home. | ||||||
Explorer Robert Ballard Brings Nautical Archaeology to URIBy John Pantalone ’71 It wouldn’t make sense to equate Robert Ballard’s arrival at URI with, say, John Wooden coaching the basketball team. Ballard’s a little younger, for one thing; he’s done his coaching underwater, for another. Still, bringing a research star like Ballard to the Graduate School of Oceanography and having him collaborate with the College of Arts & Sciences to develop a new program in nautical archaeology carries with it a certain glow.
Last spring GSO announced that Ballard—who earned his doctorate at GSO in 1975 and received an honorary degree from the University in 1986—had agreed to join the faculty. In a bit of an understatement, the media described him as world renowned. Ballard actually has a scientific cachet comparable to Wooden’s in his UCLA basketball days. And Ballard’s intention is to be the head coach of the pioneer team in a new league. This is the man who found the wrecks of the Titanic and John F. Kennedy’s PT-109. The man who is a National Geographic explorer in residence and who hosted National Geographic TV specials and had programs about his work aired on PBS. The man who has received more than 30 awards for achievements in science and exploration. And he has chosen URI as his new academic/research home. It’s all about robots and undersea archaeology. “We’re trying to create a new field of research and a doctoral program in that field,” Ballard explained from his home in Connecticut. “We’re linking the science done at GSO with the humanities in this new field of nautical archaeology. “It’s an exciting development for GSO and its students to be able to reach to the upper campus. We’re working with departments in the College of Arts & Sciences to provide curricula so our graduate students can take humanities courses in Kingston.” Likewise, students in the humanities will cross disciplines, studying with research scientists at GSO as they examine artifacts produced by expeditions. “We are tremendously excited to be collaborating with the GSO, especially because it will give our students the opportunity to work with a scientist of the caliber of Dr. Ballard,” says A&S Dean Winifred Brownell. “The program will create wonderful new opportunities for students in history, anthropology, and other fields. It also means that our faculty in those disciplines will work with scientists at GSO, which will enhance their research and expand learning opportunities for students. The program will add to the University’s prestige and will set a new tone for collaboration among colleges.” “Ballard joins a graduate school that has established itself as one of the leading oceanographic institutions in the nation,” points out GSO Dean David Farmer. “Our scientists focus on a wide range of ocean science from microbiology to fish and marine mammals, from ocean currents to ocean chemistry, from geology and geophysics to atmospheric science. This breadth provides Ballard’s program with new and significant opportunities. “For example, next summer he will be studying ancient ship wrecks in the deep waters of the Black Sea. These waters are completely devoid of oxygen, being protected from aeration by sharp density contrasts between the brackish outflows of major rivers and the highly saline water entering through the Bosphorus. The deep saline water supports only anaerobic bacteria, leading to vastly reduced decay rates for wooden hulls, sails, rigging, cargoes, and perhaps even the seamen themselves. “This raises a host of scientific issues. There is a need to understand the bacterial processes and the chemistry of these barren waters. Moreover, the ancient history of the Black Sea is written in the record of its sediments, including the strong currents associated with subsurface waves at the boundary between brackish and saline water. There are fascinating opportunities for oceanographers to collaborate in these explorations, bringing the full power of diverse skills and knowledge to bear on topics of great cultural and scientific interest.” The irony of all this is that Ballard doesn’t intend to go to sea anymore. Beginning his exploration career at age 17, he has gone on 120 expeditions. The prospect of staying home and monitoring robotic explorations appeals to him, “fiber optics make it possible for me not to have to go to sea.” But won’t he miss the romance of hands-on ocean exploration? “After 120 expeditions, I’m not interested in romance,” he says wryly. Several robotic vehicle systems developed by Ballard and his team at Mystic Aquarium’s Institute for Exploration will be berthed at the Narragansett Bay Campus. Among them will be Hercules, a $2 million system that is the first remote operated vehicle (ROV) capable of excavating an underwater archaeological site. Links between GSO and Mystic Aquarium’s Institute for Exploration will put the former in an enviable pioneer position in nautical archaeology and undersea robotic development. “What I have envisioned is an inner space center,” says Ballard, “a sort of underwater equivalent of Houston. We’ll be able to satellite transmit expedition activity live to GSO through multiple high definition signals. Until the new facility is built, we’ll use URI’s Coastal Institute as a temporary space center.” All this has become possible because of recent technological developments in robotics and communication. “I’ve had this idea for a long time, but the technology wasn’t there,” Ballard says. “I started with ROVs and then the JASON project (where expeditions are broadcast live to classrooms across the country). “I’m taking my independent worlds and integrating them. We can do that now because of satellite transmission on high band width and the Internet. The critical mass for this is recognition by the National Science Foundation that this is do-able, along with the support from the Office of Naval Research, NOAA, and the National Geographic Society.” Attracting substantial funding from such sources can only add to Ballard’s image. “We will have a jump on places like MIT and Texas A&M,” he says. “We’ll be sending our graduates to them.” “Challenge of the Deep,” a new exhibit space at Mystic Aquarium’s Institute for Exploration, features the results of some of Ballard’s explorations. The exhibits explain the technology of deep submergence surveying vehicles and display artifacts recovered from ships that have rested on the bottom of the sea for centuries. Through the Mystic Aquarium’s Institute for Exploration’s Immersion Institute, Ballard and his team share their discoveries with school children throughout the country. Thus, future research done at URI will find national and perhaps international audiences. “I think highly of URI,” says Ballard. “Every-one there said the right things when we approached them about doing this. It’s the right school and the right location for this.” |
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