Jacques Piccard

Jacques Piccard was born on July 28, 1922, in Brussels, Belgium, the son of the famous Swiss physicist and stratospheric balloonist Auguste Piccard. Jacques studied economics and history at the University of Geneva before partnering with his father to conquer the deepest mysteries of the ocean abyss.

Together, the Piccards designed and constructed the bathyscaphe 'Trieste', featuring a 12-centimeter-thick forged steel sphere capable of withstanding colossal water pressure. On January 23, 1960, backed by the U.S. Navy, Piccard and Lieutenant Don Walsh descended into the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench, reaching a record depth of 10,911 meters (35,797 feet).

At the ocean floor, Piccard spotted a living flatfish in the bathyscaphe's searchlights, proving for the first time that complex marine life exists at the bottom of the ocean. This revelation was instrumental in convincing world powers to ban nuclear waste dumping in deep ocean trenches. He died at his Lake Geneva home on November 1, 2008.