Museum Up Late: Icons of the Underwater

Don Walsh is an American oceanographer, explorer and marine policy specialist. He and Jacques Piccard were aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste when it made a record maximum descent into the Mariana Trench on January 23, 1960, the deepest point of the world's oceans.

Walsh was named one of the world's great explorers by Life magazine. In the MIR submersible, he dived on the RMS Titanic, the German battleship Bismarck, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. He has spent more than five decades traveling the world conducting research in, on, and around the oceans.

The Honorary President of the Explorers Club, winner of The National Geographic Society greatest honour, the Hubbard Medal, and recipient of The U.S. Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, Walsh is considered one of the world’s greatest living explorers.

Walsh has been associated with ocean science, engineering, and marine policy for more than fifty years.

Serving as Dean of Marine Programs and Professor of Ocean Engineering at the University of Southern California, Walsh initiated and directed the university's Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies. He continues to support ocean sciences in his work on the Ocean Sciences Board at the National Academy of Sciences.

Following six years of service as Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences, and Dean of the Graduate School of Marine Sciences at USCD, Dr. Haymet retired from administrative duties in 2013. During his tenure, Dr. Haymet significantly improved Scripps' budget and reinvigorated Scripps' academic personnel and infrastructure through an innovative agenda.

He is co-founder of CleanTECH San Diego, a business organization devoted to advancing the clean technology economy, and currently serves as Vice-Chair.

Dr. Haymet is the chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Oceans. He is elected to the board of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership (COL), Partnership for the Observation of the Global Ocean POGO, and appointed to many boards and advisory committees, including National Science Foundation's Geoscience advisory committee.

Dr. Haymet is a highly distinguished researcher who has published more than 165 peer-reviewed articles and numerous Op-Ed pieces in leading newspapers around the world. He was formerly Chief of Marine and Atmospheric Science and then the Science and Policy Director at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia.

Dr. Haymet is a tenured Professor of Oceanography at Scripps, and of Chemistry & Biochemistry at UCSD, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and a Doctor and Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Sydney.