Headquartered in Columbus, Battelle develops and commercializes technology and manages laboratories for customers. Battelle, with the national labs it manages or co-manages, oversees 20,000 staff members and conducts $3.4 billion in annual research and development. Advancements in K-12 education is one of its key community service commitments. Battelle innovations include the development of the office copier machine (Xerox), pioneering work on compact disc technology, medical technology advancements, and fiber optic technologies.
 

Image courtesy SWACO.

Sheli working on the original Garbage Project, 1976. Image courtesy National Geographic.

Smith Receives Leadership Award for Metro School Garbology Project
In a ceremony at the Hilton/Easton in Columbus on May 9, Dr. Sheli Smith, Director of Operations of the PAST Foundation, received the 2007 Leadership Award from the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO). The Leadership Award is presented to individuals who implement "exemplary, results-producing leadership that achieves positive community impact." Sheli led the way at Metro High School in helping students get "down and dirty" as they checked out first hand what people in Franklin County throw in their trash. This resulted in a stepped-up awareness of recycling, waste reduction and waste management among students, and the many partners of the PAST Foundation. 
 

Deep Wrecks Projects Wins Oceanographic Partnership Excellence Award
The National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), a collaboration of fifteen federal agencies that provides leadership and coordination of national oceanographic research and education initiatives, announced recently that the 2004 Deep Wrecks Project has been selected for the NOPP Award for Excellence in Partnering. NOPP's role is to support partnerships among federal agencies, academia, industry and other members of the ocean sciences community in areas of data, resources, education and communication. Projects are recognized based on an extensive list of criteria, including ocean sector diversity among the partners, the level of effort or involvement by project partners, the long-term commitment of the partners, the success of the partnership in meeting its project objectives and the impact of the effort to the ocean research community.

The Deep Wrecks Project, under the direction of marine archaeologists Robert Church and Dan Warren, combined the efforts of ten different public and private organizations, including PAST, to study how structures or objects function as artificial reefs in deep water. This remarkable collaboration of federal agencies, private companies and universities conducted archaeological, historical and biological research investigation of six ships that were sunk by German U-boats during World War II in the Gulf of Mexico.

The NOPP Award for Excellence in Partnering will be presented in Washington, D.C. on May 17, 2007.

May 4, 2006

Deep Wrecks Project staff in Washington, D.C. with Acting Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett. From left: Herb Leedy, Minerals Management Service;
Annalies Corbin, PAST Foundation; Dan Warren, C&C Technologies; Acting Secretary Scarlett; Jack Irion, Minerals Management Service;
John McDonough, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration; and Robert Church, C&C Technologies.
 

PAST Foundation Shares in Department of the Interior Award for Deep Wrecks Project

The U.S. Department of the Interior recently recognized the Deep Wrecks Project as one of the agency's outstanding community partnership projects of 2004. The Department of the Interior's Cooperative Conservation awards recognize projects that involve collaborative activity among a diverse range of entities including federal, state, local and tribal governments, private for profit and nonprofit institutions, other nongovernmental entities and individuals.
 

The Deep Wrecks Project was one of the most ambitious and successful of the fourteen efforts recognized by Acting Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett at the May 4, 2006 ceremony. The Deep Wrecks Project combined the efforts of ten different public and private organizations to study how structures or objects function as artificial reefs in deep water. This remarkable collaboration of federal agencies, private companies and universities conducted archaeological, historical and biological research investigation of six ships that were sunk by German U-boats during World War II in the Gulf of Mexico.
 

April 17, 2006

 

Aig Wins Prestigious Wiley Award
for Deep Wrecks Project
Dennis Aig, Ph.D., Director of the PAST Documentation Unit and Professor of Media and Theatre Arts, Montana State University (MSU), has been awarded 2006 Charles and Nora L. Wiley Award for his work on the Deep Gulf Wrecks Project. Sponsored by the MSU Foundation, the prize is given in honor of the Wileys who were pioneer ranchers in Eastern Montana. Aig and three MSU students (Keene Haywood, Lansing Dreamer and Korey Kaczmarek) operated the Media Lab during the expedition and were responsible for videotaping the operations of the ship and scientific work, logging and duplicating footage from an ROV, cutting short pieces as video updates that were sent to the PAST website while the ship was at sea, and generally linking the biologists and archaeologists onboard to each other and the rest of the world. The work of Aig and his team has been credited with expanding the use of media in underwater explorations and improving relationships among scientists and filmmakers.
 

August 24, 2005

 

PAST Partners for Maritime Heritage Education Conference,
November 18-20, 2005
The PAST Foundation is pleased to partner with the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, National Park Service, Nauticus: The National Maritime Center, Hampton Roads Naval Museum and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation for the Maritime Heritage Education Conference.
 

This conference will be the first of its kind to bring formal and informal educators together to promote the sharing of maritime heritage education partnerships, programs and products. People from all over the country will come together to participate in this exciting conference featuring guest keynote speakers, concurrent sessions, a book room and social gatherings related to the following maritime heritage topics: lighthouses and light saving stations; whaling and fishing heritage; native canoe cultures; shipping and port heritage; shipboard education programs; shipwrecks and other submerged sites.
 

January 20, 2005

PAST at Maritime Archaeology of the Pacific Conference, Honolulu
PAST Foundation staffers will present papers at the 16th Annual Symposium on Maritime Archaeology and History of Hawai`i and the Pacific, February 19-21, 2005. Papers being presented include:

• More Than Pretty Pictures: The Central Role of Videography In Deep Water Archaeology, by Dennis Aig

• New Education Opportunities with the USS Arizona, by Annalies Corbin and Andy Hall

• Involving Teachers in Web Education, by Sheli O. Smith

For more information, visit the Maritime Archaeology and History of the Hawaiian Islands Foundation (MAHHI) here.