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Driver and Passenger

In the early 1990s, marine biologist Cindy Van Dover began piloting the deep-submergence vehicle Alvin in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, eventually completing 48 dives to nearly all known hydrothermal vent fields known at the time. Van Dover, an authority on the unique  inhabiting hydrothermal vents, now leads Duke University’s Marine Laboratory. In her work she still dives in Alvin, albeit as a passenger, and is scheduled for a 2014 expedition. It will be her first time in the overhauled and upgraded submersible and is looking forward to the larger viewports. “I can’t wait for the picture-window view,” she said.(Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)