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Expedition Members

Prof. Anatoly Sagalevitch
Dr Anatoly Sagalevitch played a major role in the MIR submersibles' design and implementation and has been the Chief scientist and expedition leader on all expedition dive projects since the submersibles were built in 1987.

He has been expedition leader for all MIR dives for both the IMAX Titanica and James Cameron's Hollywood epic. He has piloted the MIR on numerous dives to the Titanic, to the Russian submarine Komsomolets, the Japanese I-52, the German battleship Bismarck and many other deep dive expeditions.

Anatoly is a world-renowned scientist and has published a number of scientific papers. He is also an award-winning member of the Explorers Club. Dr Sagalevitch is assisted by two highly experienced submersible pilots, Yvgeniy Cherniaev and Victor Nischeta and by the highly skilled MIR support team.

Don Walsh
Don Walsh served in the Navy from 1948 to 1975. Duty was mostly in submarines during his 14 years at sea which included the Korean and Vietnam wars. Walsh commanded a submarine in the Pacific Fleet 1968-70. Shore duty assignments were in ocean science and technology. At retirement he held the rank of Captain.

In 1975 he became dean of marine programs, and professor of ocean engineering, at the University of Southern California. At USC he founded and directed their Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies. In 1983 he left the University to establish his consulting business, International Maritime Incorporated, as a full-time enterprise.

Walsh has a BS in engineering from Annapolis ; an MS and PhD in oceanography from Texas A&M University, and an MA in political science from California State University at San Diego.

He has had over 200 papers and articles published, plus editing five books on ocean-related subjects. Over the past 40 years, his lecturing activities have taken him to 60 nations where he has given more than 1,500 lectures, TV and radio appearances.

As an adventurer-explorer, he has worked in the deep oceans, polar regions and space. From 1959 to 1962 he was the first commander of the Navy's Bathyscaphe Trieste and was designated U.S. Navy deep submersible pilot #1 in 1959. In 1960 he and co-pilot Jacques Piccard dove Trieste into the deepest place in the World Ocean, a depth of seven miles.

Dr. Walsh first went to the Arctic in 1955 and Antarctic in 1971 as a member of Operation Deep Freeze '71. He has worked at both the North and South Poles, having made 10 expeditions to the Arctic and 16 to the Antarctic. His contributions to polar exploration were recognized in 1973 when a mountain ridge in the Antarctic was named for him.

At Texas A&M (1965-68) he worked with NASA Houston during the late Gemini and early Apollo programs, to determine how spacecraft could be used to study the oceans. Walsh became one of the first oceanographers to work with remote sensing from aircraft and spacecraft.

Don has participated in most of Deep Ocean Expedition programmes since the company was founded. This includes dives to the Titanic, the Mid-Atlantic ridge and ancient shipwrecks off Marseilles

Mike McDowell
Deep Ocean Expeditions (DOE) was founded in 1998 by Australian diver, climber and adventurer Mike McDowell.

Mike is a leading innovator in expedition cruising and eco-tourism ventures and was the founder of Quark Expeditions that pioneered the use of icebreakers to take expeditioners into the frozen reaches of the Arctic, Antarctic and North Pole.

In addition to these expeditions far ends of the earth Mike has for many years organized significant natural history and scuba diving expeditions in remote regions of Papua New Guinea, Micronesia and Indonesia.

Mike was also for many years a director and major shreholder in Adventure Network International that continues to be the primary private aviation logistic support company and tour operator in the interior Antarctic continent. Mike was also one of the founders of Space Adventures, a company successfully offering space travel to the general public.

In the late 1990's he along with several close colleagues, developed a new concept for expedition cruising: to use deep diving submersibles to take people exploring the oceans' depths. Deep Ocean Expeditions was born.

McDowell has been organizing remote location expeditions for 26 years and these have included ocean going, land and aircraft supported expeditions. In addition to producing great concepts for expedition travel McDowell has a successful record of being able to carry these visions and 'off the wall' concepts from the concept stage through to fruition in the form of exciting expeditions and adventures.

Contact: mike@deepoceanexpeditions.com

Belinda Sawyer
New Zealander Belinda Sawyer is Operations Manager of Deep Ocean Expeditions overseeing all the logistics involved with putting together remote expeditions.

Belinda is also an expedition leader, qualified ships master/engineer and dive master.

Belinda has worked in expedition teams in many parts of the world. Since 1999 she has worked for Deep Ocean Expeditions on the deep diving MIR submersible programme. Her other work has varied from leading remote location support teams to commanding vessels and implementing inshore fisheries management programmes.

She also spends considerable time beneath the ocean participating in both recreational and scientific research scuba diving.

Continuing with Deep Ocean Expeditions primary goals of adventure, education and science, Belinda also promotes exploration and sustainable management of the world oceans through the DOE website and various education institutes..

Curt Newport
Curt Newport is a pioneer in the development and operation of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and works as a consultant to various ocean related organizations.

During his work with underwater vehicles, he has accumulated over 4000 hours of piloting time operating Canadian, U.S., and British vehicles in the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, English Channel, Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Campeche, Formosa Straits, Sea of Japan, Straits of Sicily, South China Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. Overall, he has piloted ROVs on over 50 undersea operations and is regarded as one of the most experienced submersible vehicle pilots in the world. He has participated in numerous high-profile undersea operations such as the salvage of Air India Flight 182, the Space Shuttle Challenger, TWA 800, the broadcast of live images from the sunken ocean liner RMS Titanic, as well as many other classified missions involving the loss of military aircraft and weaponry.

In particular, he organized and led an expedition to locate and recover Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft which succeeded in finding the tiny capsule on May 1, 1999 and recovering the space-age artifact from waters 16,043 feet deep later the same year. The Liberty Bell-7 recovery remains the deepest commercial salvage operation in history. Mr. Newport's accomplishments were recently observed by his alma mater when Capitol College in Laurel, Maryland recently conveyed to him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D. Sc.) for his role in the recovery of Grissom's sunken Mercury spacecraft.

He also recently led an expedition to the Philippine Sea during a search for the Heavy Cruiser USS Indianapolis, which will be the subject of a documentary film broadcast on the Discovery Channel in 2001. In addition, Newport helped find investigate the deepest wooden shipwreck ever discovered (a 19th century merchant ship lost in almost 16,000 feet of water) in June of 2001, using two Russian Mir manned submersibles operating from the Research Vessel Akademik Keldysh.

Mr. Newport is a member of the Marine Technology Society, Explorers Club, as well as the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineer's Marine Forensic Panel, formed in conjunction with the Salvage Committee - Maritime Law Association and the Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

The author has lectured on behalf of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and the Kansas Aviation Museum, Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and been interviewed by various media organizations such as NBC's Today Show and Evening News, ABC's Good Morning America, CNN, CBS Morning News, USA Today, Florida Today, British Broadcasting Company, National Public Radio, CBS National Radio, Reuters, and the Associated Press.

The writer currently resides in Potomac, Maryland, where he organizes and supports various underwater operations on an international basis.

Please note:
The staff members listed above may or may not be participating in this expedition. This is a guide only. Also note additional expert Deep Ocean Expedition staff not listed here will also be participants on this expedition.