Eben's presentation will include a brief historical perspective on the development of some sampling tools, instrumentation and sensors and how transoceanic telegraph communications in the 19th and 20th centuries continue to play a role in research and exploration programs, even today. The main focus of the representation will be on developments in submersibles and robotic vehicles that have greatly enhanced mankind's understanding of the world's oceans. Time permitting, Mr. Franks will delve into his current work developing and deploying marine energy conversion devices.

C. Eben Franks has spent 8 1/2 years at sea, participating in numerous - and sometimes seemingly endless - oceanographic research and exploration projects since 1971. He found his career pathway during his first year at sea, initially as a messman on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Research Vessel Atlantis II