The Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography was recently established under the direction of Professor Robert Ballard as an academic home for his scientific and engineering endeavours including oceanographic exploration programs, underwater archaeology projects, and marine technology development. The institute is the hub for a new multidisciplinary graduate program at GSO in Archaeological Oceanography in collaboration with University of Rhode Island's History and Anthropology Departments. The goal of IAO is to create an academic program that bridges the gap between the archaeological oceanographic communities. The program seeks to educate and train graduate students in the new multidisciplinary field of Archaeological Oceanography. Through studying in this five-year program, students will obtain a Ph.D. in Oceanography as well as a Master's degree in Anthropology/Archaeology within the History Masters program. Part of the academic program will include courses, seminars, and conferences on a variety of topics that unite archaeology and oceanography. Guest lecturers who are working towards synthesis between the social and scientific communities are invited to take part in these programs. IAO faculty, students and staff will also be involved in the design and execution of expeditions that span Paleolithic to contemporary shipwrecks, as well as submerged landscapes that may hold sites of previous human habitation. As part of the program, IAO will assist the oceanographic community by exploring other sites of potential value for future scientific investigation. IAO is committed to developing and operating specialized technology to carry out our archaeological oceanographic expeditions and to disseminate our results through formal and informal education. Some of these technologies include precision mapping, imaging systems, excavation and recovery, conservation and preservation, and telepresence technology. Among the most accomplished and well known of the world's deep-sea explorers, Robert Ballard is best known for his historic discovery of the R.M.S. Titanic. During his long career he has conducted more than 120 deep-sea expeditions using the latest in exploration technology, and he is a pioneer in the early use of deep-diving submarines. Ballard has pioneered distance learning in the classrooms of America and around the world with his JASON Project, an award-winning educational program that reaches more than 1.7 million students and 38,000 teachers annually. He has received the Explorers Club and the National Geographic Society's most prestigious awards—the Explorers Medal and the Hubbard Medal—as well as the Lindbergh Award. In 2003 President Bush presented him with the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal in the Oval Office of the White House. Ballard is president of the Institute for Exploration, scientist emeritus from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and director of the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, where he is in search of ancient lost history in the depths of the sea.