Dr. Robert D. Ballard founded the JASON Foundation for Education (JFE) to administer the JASON Project in 1989 after receiving thousands of letters from school children wanting to know how he discovered the R.M.S. Titanic. JFE is a non-profit educational organization working in partnership with teachers, students, corporations, educational institutions and government to inspire in students a lifelong passion to pursue learning in science, math and technology through exploration and discovery.

National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Ballard is the founder and president of the Institute for Exploration (IFE) at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut and director of the Institute of Archaeological Oceanography at the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island .

Dr. Ballard has led or participated in more than 100 deep-sea expeditions using manned and unmanned vehicles such as: HERCULES, ALVIN , ARCHIMEDES, TRIESTE II, TURTLE, BEN FRANKLIN, CYANA and NR-1. These expeditions included the first manned exploration of the Mid-Ocean Ridge, the exploration of the luxury liner Lusitania and the discovery of previously lost ships such as the R.M.S. Titanic, the German battleship Bismarck , 11 warships from the lost fleet of Guadalcanal and the U.S.S Yorktown. During his deep-sea expeditions, Ballard also discovered polymetallic sulfides, high temperature “black smokers” and warm water springs and their unusual animal communities in the Galapagos Rift.

Dr. Ballard has published over 60 scientific articles in journals including Science, Nature, Earth and Planetary Science Letters and Journal of Geophysical Research. Dr. Ballard has also written many popular articles for the general public, including 13 articles in National Geographic magazine. The books he has written about his discoveries of the R.M.S. Titanic, Bismarck and Lusitania are worldwide bestsellers.

Dr. Ballard has received many awards, including: