Blockbuster filmmaker James Cameron is scheduled to receive the 2013 Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest on Friday by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
Cameron, who made Titanic and Avatar, is being honored for his donation to Scripps of an extreme-depth unmanned undersea exploration system known as a "lander" for the institution's future deep-sea exploration and research. According to Scripps, its capacity to probe the deep sea has been considerably boosted by the lander.
"Scripps Institution of Oceanography is extremely grateful to James Cameron for his generous lander gift, which not only holds historical value, but will prove to be a key resource for many significant deep-sea expeditions in the near future," said Catherine Constable, interim director of Scripps. "The lander will help us unlock the mysteries of Earth's least explored environment, which remains a true frontier of science."
Last year, Cameron became the first person to make a solo dive to the world's deepest point, 6.8 miles below the Pacific Ocean surface in the Marianas Trench.
The prize was created through a gift from the Nierenberg family to honor the memory of William A. Nierenberg, the director of Scripps Oceanography from 1965 to 1986.
Scripps said the prize, which includes a bronze medal and $25,000, is awarded each year for outstanding contributions to science in the public interest. Cameron is donating the prize money to Scripps to kick-start operations of a new Lander Lab based to coordinate the system's operations and research applications.
The lander includes an instrument frame, command and control spheres, empty camera spheres, buoyancy spheres, water and biological sampling systems, and deck support gear.
It comes equipped as a complete deep-exploration system that can be configured in a full 14-foot, 1,000-pound mode—the design for Cameron's dive in the Marianas—or smaller versions that can be deployed from a variety of vessels.
Doug Bartlett, a Scripps marine microbiologist and chief scientist of Cameron's dive expedition, said he plans to use the lander system to collect seawater, sediments, animals in baited traps, and microbes. It could be deployed to the Sirena Deep in the Pacific Ocean next month, he said.
Past Nierenberg Prize winners have included Dame Jane Goodall, Walter Cronkite and Sir David Attenborough.
—City News Service
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