Ballard urges funding for oceanography school

PROVIDENCE – Robert Ballard, professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island and world-renowned oceanic archaeologist, told the Rhode Island House last month that state funding is needed for the university’s Graduate School of Oceanography.

Ballard visited the Statehouse at the invitation of Rep. Eileen S. Naughton, D-Warwick, primarily to testify before the House Committee on Finance on legislation that seeks a $500,000 appropriation to the URI Graduate School of Oceanography Center for Ocean Exploration.

The appropriation sought would be used in several ways, including teacher certification, grants for schools and organizations, training for educators and youth workers, live interactive programming and a scholarship program for the Graduate School of Oceanography Center for Ocean Exploration.

“What we are doing now, with the new telecommunication equipment that we have, is trying to reach all students and teachers in our state to get them excited about science and technology,” he said in prepared remarks.

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Ballard is best known for his discovery of the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the wreck of the battleship Bismarck in 1989 and the wreck of John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 in 2002.

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