The Waitt Institute is a non-profit research organization based in La Jolla, California. The Institute serves as an exploration catalyst, enabling scientific pioneers to transform the ways in which discoveries are made. Founded in 2005 by Ted Waitt, the Waitt Institute seeks to advance human understanding of the past and secure promise of a better future through exploration and discovery. The Institute operates the CATALYST Program for deep ocean exploration and serves as leader on multiple maritime archaeology expeditions around the world. Through the Waitt Foundation, the Institute also supports exploratory field research endeavors in the natural and social sciences.

Our Mission

We serve as an exploration catalyst, putting immediate research opportunities into action.

We enable and facilitate the world’s leading scientific pioneers, accelerating their capacity to carry out groundbreaking research.

We implement creative approaches and inspired technologies in the field, transforming the ways in which discoveries are made through innovation.

We foster partnerships with world-renown scientific organizations, synthesizing the finest capabilities and expertise each institution has to offer.

We seek out revolutionary discoveries, progressing our understanding of the past to secure promise of a better future.

RECENT EXPEDITIONS

Expedition Titanic
In late Summer 2010, Waitt Institute completed an expedition in the North Atlantic with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and RMS Titantic LLC. The expedition utilized both of Waitt Institute’s AUVs to create the first ever comprehensive and multi-dimensional map of the Titanic wreck site. The information and images captured during the expedition will provide the world a dramatically improved view of this important site.

CATALYST 2 - The Search for Amelia
In the spring of 2009, the Waitt Institute used its two new autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to search the South Pacific for Amelia Earhart’s lost Electra 10E. Although the CATALYST 2 team did not find the plane, they successfully surveyed over 2200 square-miles of ocean floor in just under three months. The CATALYST 2 expedition was a partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.

CATALYST 1 - Florida’s Deep Reefs
This inaugural CATALYST expedition utilized the Waitt Institute’s new autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to create the first-ever high definition side-scan sonar maps of deep-water coral reefs off the coast of Florida. This charter mapping effort provided the data necessary to enable scientists and lawmakers to protect these reefs as part of a new Marine Protected Area. The CATALYST 1 expedition was a partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.

Ancient Shipwreck, Albania
In August of 2008, the Waitt Institute took part in a two-week exploratory expedition off the coast of southern Albania. As part of the expedition, the Waitt Institute’s team of divers explored and documented an ancient shipwreck from the 3rd century BCE. The information they accumulated will be used to help evaluate the shipwreck’s potential for a future archaeological excavation and further study of its features. The Waitt Institute’s expedition to Albania was a partnership with the RPM Nautical Foundation.

New Spain Fleet, Mexico
In early 2008, the Waitt Institute partnered with renowned archaeologist Pilar Luna from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). Through this partnership, the Waitt Institute expedition team assisted in the search for the flagship of the New Spain Fleet, which sank and was lost in 1631. The expedition team completed several sonar and magnetometer surveys along Chinchorro and Campeche Banks.

Rio Chagres Maritime Cultural Landscape, Panama
In early 2008, the Waitt Institute and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology partnered to conduct a site survey at the mouth of Panama’s Chagres River. The expedition team discovered and documented submerged cultural resources in various locations at the mouth of the river and in the waters below Fort San Lorenzo, including a shipwreck site. This cultural maritime site spans over 500 years of human history in the region.

The Submarine Explorer, Panama
The Waitt Institute and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology partnered in 2008 and returned to the site of the abandoned Submarine Explorer in Panama to complete full documentation of the beached craft. This Waitt expedition also included a survey of the marine life living in and around the submarine, as well as an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) survey of the waters in the  immediate vicinity of the Explorer.

Endymion Rock Shipwrecks, Turks & Caicos
In late 2007, the Waitt Institute partnered with the Turks and Caicos National Museum and Ships of Discovery to create a detailed record of the wreck of the HMS Endymion (1790), British Fifth-Rate warship. The expedition also resulted in the documentation and identification of another wreck nearby, the five-masted schooner General Pershing (1921).

RECENT COLLABORATIONS

NGS/Waitt Grants Program
This 5-year grant program is supported by the Waitt Institute and operated by the National Geographic Society. The program awards grants to individual researchers whose exploratory fieldwork holds promise for new breakthroughs in the natural and social sciences. Through the NGS/Waitt grants, the Waitt Institute funded more than 50 research projects in the program’s first year, taking place on all five continents.

The Genographic Project
Led by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Spencer Wells, the Genographic Project is a five-year National Geographic Society initiative to use sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people to map how the Earth was populated. With funding from the Waitt Foundation and support from the Waitt Institute, the project is establishing 10 centers around the world and will study more than 100,000 DNA samples from indigenous populations.