Victor Vescovo recently received an award for his ocean exploration trips.

Vescovo, a graduate of St. Mark’s School of Texas, was one recipient of the 2021 Captain Don Walsh Award for Ocean Exploration. Along with Vescovo, Patrick Lahey won the award for the 2019 Five Deeps Expedition and further dives “of scientific or historical interest” in later years.

The award, named after American oceanographer, explorer, retired naval officer and marine policy specialist Captain Don Walsh, was given by the Marine Technology Society and the Society for Underwater Technology. It recognizes “outstanding, sustained, international contribution to the development, application, and propagation of marine technology toward the advancement of ocean exploration.”

“It is a true honor to be recognized by the experts of the MTS and STU, alongside my friend and colleague Patrick. I would have to emphasize that he and I were simply the leaders of an extraordinary team that enabled our success — and we certainly stood on the shoulders of giants like Captain Walsh and James Cameron who developed extraordinary, full ocean depth technologies before us,” Vescovo said.

Vescovo found and dove to the five deepest spots in the world’s oceans. It required a unique diving submersible, which was developed by Triton Submarines, and a specially equipped survey and support ship. Our neighbor’s experiences have been documented in a Discovery+ series called “Expedition Deep Ocean.”

He has also mapped over 1 million square kilometers of ocean floor and donated his findings to the Nippon Foundation General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans Seabed 2030 project.