AGE: 28
POSITION: Founder/director of Ocean Opportunity, a Providence-based nonprofit; freelance ocean science, technology and exploration consultant.
RESIDENCE: Providence.
LIFELONG AMBITION: To stay on the front lines of manned ocean exploration.
FAVORITE BOOK: “Free Agent Nation,” by Daniel Pink.
GUILTY PLEASURE: Chocolate, chocolate, more chocolate.
One can imagine Michael Lombardi leaping out his chair to describe what he calls “the pivotally inspirational moment in my career,” when he coordinated a “mixed-gas” (helium, nitrogen and oxygen) 300-foot dive in the Bahamas – more than six times deeper than can bea reached with more-conventional scuba gear.
“In less than eight minutes of dive time, more than a dozen new species of marine life were discovered,” he said in his 40 Under Forty application, “nearly half of which were found to produce chemicals useful in combating cancer and other human conditions.”
Lombardi has the passion of youth, but it is just as clear that he has the insight and drive of an experienced explorer. Earlier this year, he helped the world’s first ventilator-dependent, wheelchair-bound diver take to the water. He has nearly 30 publication credits in his field, dating back to when he was 21.
In fact, he remains so true to his lifelong ambition – to stay on the front lines – that much of his work to date has been drafting new standards for cutting-edge diving technologies for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the American Academy of Underwater Sciences. He provided diving support beneath the Antarctic ice shelf during an expedition to track the effects of ultraviolet light due to ozone depletion.
What drives him? “The opportunities for pure discovery,” he said, “the ability to offer hope to those who will benefit from such discoveries, and the demonstrated need to innovate to afford increased and more routinely efficient access to these unexplored areas of our planet.”
But it is not just youth or achievement that set Lombardi apart. It is his need to share. Go to the Web site of his nonprofit, www.oceanopportunity.com. It is a celebration of the spirit of human adventure and an affirmation of the positive power of discovery, not just of the world around us, but of our own capabilities.
“Within the creative depths of human intellect, there lie Oceans of Opportunity,” the site declares. With Michael Lombardi, there is no doubt that no opportunity will be wasted.
