About Dave Conlin
After undergraduate work at Reed College, Dave Conlin received a master’s degree from Oxford University in Aegean and underwater archeology and then followed this with a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology and archeology from Brown University. Following years of diving and research on the shipwrecks of the Aegean, Dave took a job as an underwater archeologist for the United States Navy. While with the Navy he helped plan and execute the recovery of the world’s first successful combat submarine, the Confederate submersible H.L. Hunley-lost off Charleston South Carolina in 1864. Following the Hunley project Dave moved to Santa Fe to join the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center and continued diving on shipwrecks around the country and around the world.
Projects have included:
- The search for John Paul Jones’ ship Bon Homme Richard
- Diving on the wreck of a B-29 Superfortress that crashed into Lake Mead while doing top-secret high altitude research for the U.S. Air Force
- Diving on the wreck of USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor
- Working with Ellis Island to document and preserve portions of the historic ferry Ellis Island
- Assisting the government of Mozambique in the creation of national parks to preserve historic shipwrecks and sensitive ecological areas off the African coast
- Working with an international team to assist with the study and documentation of the wreck of RMS Titanic. He has been a technical diver since 2002 and a rebreather diver since 2006
Dave is the current Chief of the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center and lives with his wife in Boulder Colorado.
Dual Sensor Failure at Lake Mead
