Sea Exploration Is Ballard's Muse

By VIC COX


	Scientist/explorer Robert Ballard

By Vic Cox Explorer and scientist Robert D. Ballard is best known for finding and mapping the seabed graves of famous ships, such as the RMS Titanic, the Bismarck, and the USS Yorktown. Indeed, he currently presides over the Institute for Exploration that shares space with the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Conn., and will discuss his deep-sea discoveries on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 8 p.m. in Campbell Hall. However, the UCSB alumnus also was instrumental in finding new forms of sea life in 1977 when he and his crew probed thermal vents near the Galapagos Islands. Ballard's engineering skills created a system of remotely controlled marine robots for the explorations, and his leadership built the crews that would make discoveries in many of the world's harshest marine habitats. As an educator, he also established the JASON Project, which uses multimedia and satellite communications technology to allow thousands of grade school youngsters to peer over the shoulders of the technicians and scientists on an annual voyage of discovery. ÒYou bring back what you discover,Ó Ballard said in explaining his public education efforts. Next fall, JASON will visit the Santa Barbara Channel Islands, he said. ÒMy whole life are these mini-epic journeys,Ó Ballard explained. ÒI love expeditions,Ó the total number of which is pushing 120. He once told an interviewer from Omni magazine that on his headstone he wanted engraved the word Òexplorer.Ó He attributes some of his wide-ranging interests and activities to the fact that he is a Westerner, born in Wichita, Kansas, and raised in San Diego. His father had been a cowboy in Montana before becoming an aerospace engineer who worked on the Minuteman missile program. Ballard feels that his love of the oceans grew from his childhood in Southern California, but his scientific and technological bent came from family influences and college exposure.When he came to UCSB in the early 1960s he chose what he termed Òthis weird degree in the physical sciencesÓ that combined geology and chemistry, with a smattering of biology and engineering. It was academically demanding; as a young student, he joined ROTC, a fraternity, played basketball, and dated women. ÒI never made the dean's list,Ó he recalled, Òbut it all helped later on. I felt comfortable moving back and forth between developing new tools and using them.Ó Oceanography was the perfect field for his set of skills and a Westerner's need for room to roam. He joined the U.S. Navy's Deep Submergence Laboratory at Wood Hole, Mass., in 1967 for a relationship that would span three decades, during which he got his Ph.D. in marine geology and geophysics from the University of Rhode Island. He also came to the attention of the National Geographic Society, for which he has written many books and magazine articles and starred in a series of deep sea exploration television programs. As president of the Institute for Exploration in MysticÑa perfect location name for a man who christened his exploration vehicles Little Hercules, Argos, and ArgusÑBallard has designed and built a circular Òimmersion theaterÓ that gives 50 people the impression they are in a giant submersible seeing things underwater for themselves. In this multimedia ÒvehicleÓ the audience is exposed to what robots are sensing, for example, in the Monterey National Marine Sanctuary on the opposite side of the nation. Ballard plans to establish systems of sensors and video transmitters in most of the 13 national marine sanctuaries so that people can visit without either getting damp or disturbing the marine life. He said he will further these ideas when he visits Santa Barbara to prepare for the upcoming JASON adventure.