Fritz Hanselmann

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The National Geographic Society/Waitt Grants Program helps qualified and experienced individuals launch the most difficult stage of a project for which to secure funding—the search. Grants are made for exploratory fieldwork that holds promise for new breakthroughs in the natural and social sciences. NGS/Waitt Grants applications are processed throughout the year and grants are awarded expeditiously to help researchers take advantage of immediate opportunities. The NGS/Waitt grants are an initiative of the National Geographic Society and the Waitt Institute.

Funded through a five-year grant from the Waitt Foundation, the NGS/Waitt Grants Program is administered by National Geographic Mission Programs and makes approximately one hundred grants annually of $5,000 to $15,000. Proposals are considered as they are received and awards are made within weeks of application.

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Doctoral Student, Indiana University Department of Anthropology

Fritz Hanselmann
Director of Field Operations and Research Development and Lecturer
Office of Underwater Science at Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana

Doctoral Student
Indiana University Department of Anthropology

Research Associate
Institute of Nautical Archaeology

Waitt Expeditions:
Panama: Rio Chagres (Principal Investigator)
Panama: Submarine Explorer (Principal Investigator)

Biography
Fritz Hanselmann is an underwater archaeologist and is the Director of Field Operations and Research Development for the Office of Underwater Science at Indiana University. He is also a Research Associate with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University. Fritz holds a master’s degree and is working towards completing a doctorate in archaeology. He teaches courses such as Introduction to Scientific Diving and Underwater Archaeology Techniques. Having worked on shipwrecks from a wide variety of time periods, his personal research focuses on the shipwrecks and submerged sites of the contact period and the archaeology of piracy, specifically shipwrecks of Christopher Columbus, William Kidd, and Henry Morgan. In addition to his work with WID and INA in Panama, Fritz is currently working on projects in the Dominican Republic, Florida, and California. In the summer of 2009, he and the IU team will begin the second season of excavations on a shipwreck which the archaeological record increasingly indicates to be the Cara Merchant also known as the Quedagh Merchant, which was abandoned near Hispaniola in 1699 by Captain Kidd prior to his trial and subsequent hanging. In a broader perspective, Fritz is also interested in maritime cultural landscapes, the protection and preservation of underwater sites, and the development of marine protected areas and underwater parks.