Bio
James Cameron
James Cameron's films have blazed new trails in visual effects and set performance records both domestically and abroad. AVATAR and TITANIC, the #1 and #2 highest grossing films in history, earned 23 Academy Award nominations and 14 Oscars between them.
An avid scuba diver, Cameron has made 33 manned-submersible dives to the Titanic, and ultimately led seven deep ocean expeditions with over 70 deep submersible dives. He created a number of documentary films about ocean exploration and conservation, including GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS and ALIENS OF THE DEEP, both of which utilized the 3D camera system he co-pioneered.
Cameron is fascinated by outer as well as inner space; he is currently a co-investigator on the Mastcam of the Curiosity Rover, which in 2011 will be the first 3D motion imaging camera to operate on another planet. He is continuing to develop ocean projects and other environmentally-themed documentaries.
Eric Schmidt
Eric E. Schmidt is executive chairman of Google. Since joining the startup in 2001, Schmidt has helped grow the company to be a global leader in technology. As executive chairman, he is responsible for the external matters of Google: building partnerships and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership, and advising the CEO and senior leadership on business and policy issues. From 2001 to 2011, Schmidt served as Google’s CEO, overseeing the company’s technical and business strategy alongside its founder. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation. Schmidt is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council in the UK. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a fellow in 2007.
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Encyclopædia Britannica Article
- Titanic
The Titanic.The Bettmann ArchiveBritish luxury passenger liner that sank on April 15, 1912, en route to New York from Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage. Over 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers were lost. The largest and most luxurious ship afloat, it had a double-bottomed hull divided into 16 watertight compartments. Because four of these could be flooded without endangering its buoyancy, it was considered unsinkable. Shortly before midnight on April 14, it collided with an iceberg southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland; five compartments ruptured and the ship sank. As a result, new rules were drawn up requiring that the number of places in lifeboats equal the number of passengers (the Titanic had only 1,178 lifeboat places for 2,224 passengers) and that all ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch for distress signals (a ship less than 20 mi [32 km] away had not heard the Titanic's distress signal because no one had been on duty). The International Ice Patrol was established to monitor icebergs in shipping lanes. In 1985 the wreck was found lying upright in two pieces at a depth of 13,000 ft (4,000 m) and was explored by American and French scientists using an unmanned submersible (see Robert Ballard).
- Titanic on britannica.com
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