Robert Ballard is known for his discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic, the battleship Bismarck, the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and President John F. Kennedy’s PT-109. The famous ocean explorer is the final speaker in this year’s Discover Science Lecture Series Thursday, April 3 at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Ballard’s talks are always evolving, depending on his most recent work and adventures, and he always loves to talk about his Titanic adventures. He is a former U.S. Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. In his talk, through the use of stunning high-quality images and personal accounts, Ballard will present his work in underwater archaeology, maritime archaeology and the archaeology of shipwrecks.
He discusses motivating people to think outside the box, learning how to deal with failure and view it as just a step along the way to success, motivating children to choose careers in math, science and engineering; and living their dream.
Ballard uses the emerging science of deep-water archeology to share his findings from numerous expeditions where he searched for, located and documented sites of historical significance.
The lecture is held at 7 p.m. in the Redfield Auditorium in the Davidson Mathematics and Science Center at the University of Nevada, Reno. Parking is reserved for the event on the top level of the Brian J. Whalen Parking Complex. Admission is free.
Now in its fourth year, the annual College of Science Discover Science Lecture Series features several presentations a year and has brought some of the world’s leading scientists to the Reno-Sparks community to share their knowledge. This year the series also featured University of Nevada, Reno alumnus Alan Krause, whose engineering firm MWH Global is rebuilding the Panama Canal, and Brian Greene, one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists and a brilliant, entertaining communicator of cutting-edge scientific concepts.
Past Discover Science Lecture Series speakers include Bill Nye the Science Guy, anthropologist Anna Roosevelt, physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Nobel Laureate and physicist Eric Cornell, chemist and green energy expert Harry Gray, Jeff Lieberman, musician, artist, researcher and host of “Time Warp” on the Discovery Channel and Michio Kaku, futurist and theoretical physicist.
For more information, call 775-784-4591 or visit the College of Science website at www.unr.edu/science.