Legendary explorer Kathy Sullivan shares our delight of new horizons and provides advice and inspiration to the EYOS team. As a geologist, oceanographer, US Navy officer and NASA astronaut (three Shuttle missions/500 hours in space), Kathy has explored every continent, every ocean and space itself. She has served as Mission Manager and in-flight scientist aboard NASA’s high-altitude WB-57F aircraft and as Chief of the Astronaut Office’s Mission Development Branch. Kathy’s NASA awards and commendations include the Medal for Outstanding Leadership, the twice-awarded Exceptional Service Medal, and the Spaceflight Medal, which she’s received three times.
Kathy’s extraordinary achievements also extend below the water line: from complex research expeditions that have charted and named seamounts off Eastern Canada, to diving to full ocean depth. Most notably, as part of the Five Deeps Expedition managed by EYOS Expeditions, Kathy became the first woman to reach full ocean depth (10,925m/35,853ft) by diving to Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. When combined with her space flights, this dive earned her the well-deserved title, “the world’s most vertical person”.
In government, Kathy has served as Under-Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere as well as the Administrator and Chief Scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and has served as the Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History, Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, where she researched a pivotal but untold chapter in the history of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Kathy’s advice and support are invaluable to the EYOS team, and when on expedition she is a passionate shipmate who shares our mutual love of new horizons.