PICCARD, JACQUES (-ERNEST-JEAN)

born July 28, 1922, Brussels Swiss oceanic engineer, economist, and physicist, who helped his father, Auguste Piccard, build the bathyscaphe for deep-sea exploration and who also invented the mesoscaphe, an undersea vessel for exploring middle depths. He was born in Brussels while his Swiss-born father was professor at the University of Brussels. After graduating from the cole Nouvelle de Suisse Romande in Lausanne, Switz., in 1943, he studied at the University of Geneva, taking a year off in 194445 in order to serve with the French First Army. Upon receiving his licentiate in 1946, he taught at the university for two years before entering private teaching. Meanwhile, he was helping his father to design bathyscaphes and in 1953 accompanied him in the Trieste on a dive of 10,168 feet (3,099 m) off the island of Ponza, Italy. In 1956 Jacques Piccard went to the United States seeking funding; two years later the U.S. Navy bought the Trieste and retained him as a consultant. On Jan. 23, 1960, he and Lieutenant Don Walsh of the U.S. Navy set a new submarine depth record by descending 35,800 feet (10,912 m) into the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean using the Trieste. In the early 1960s, working with his father, he designed and built the mesoscaphe (capable of carrying 40 tourists) for underwater observation through portholes. In 1966 in the bathyscaphe he conducted research in the Gulf Stream for the U.S. Navy. In his later career he was consultant scientist for several private American organizations for deep-sea research, including the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, New York (196671).