About Me

David A. Bright, President of Nautical Research Group, Inc. has been involved in underwater and shipwreck exploration for almost thirty-five years. A research scientist with a scientific degree in biology and an advanced degree in physiology from the Pennsylvania State University, Mr. Bright is an experienced shipwreck historian and deep technical diver. He has worked in various capacities on more than forty documentaries with such networks as National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, A&E, the Learning Channel, PBS (Public Broadcasting) and the major television networks - ABC, CBS, NBC. His research has also appeared in several thousand publications and news media outlets worldwide, including CNN, the New York Times, the Associated Press, and the Reuters news agency. Bright has lectured extensively at universities, museums, libraries, and various prestigious functions on the exploration of ships. He has been a major contributor to many books, newspaper features, and other media-related sources, and his diving exploits have been featured in two recently released books, Collision Course by Alvin Moscow and Dark Descent by Kevin McMurray. David is a member of the prestigious Explorer's Club, the Marine Technology Society, American Academy of Underwater Sciences, Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society and the Pennsylvania State University Eberly College of Science Alumni Board of Directors.

Bright has studied the Titanic for more than thirty years and was honored as the featured keynote speaker at the Titanic's eightieth-anniversary convention in New York City, where he sat at the head table with many of the Titanic survivors. In the summers of 2003 and 2005, as part of his scientific research on the Titanic, he dived to the wreck site of this historic ship, almost three miles down in the dark North Atlantic, to perform research using the Russian Mir submersible. In the course of this project he has been researching the degradation of the Titanic by analyzing comparative photometric analysis to understand the etiology of increased, exponential microbial activity evident in situ. His Titanic video was licensed to promote Dr. Robert Ballard's 2004 expedition to the famed ship. Additionally, this video footage has also been used to support two National Geographic documentaries, the latest of which aired in December 2004, a National Geographic DVD released in April 2005 and a History Channel documentary that was shown in October 2005.

Mr. Bright spent two years working with NOAA on the exploration and research of the wreck site of the Civil War ironclad, USS Monitor. Using mixed-gas SCUBA, David made many dives to this famous warship and provided scientific evidence on the condition of the ship through the utility of high-quality video and photography, corrosion and metal decay measurements and recovery of small items that are in the stewardship of the USS Monitor Center, Mariners Museum at Newport News, Virginia.

Bright is the founder and a member of the Andrea Doria Survivor Reunions Committee, whose function is to provide survivors and their family members with annual events to commemorate this sea disaster. He has established the Andrea Doria Museum Project (the main site is at the Nantucket Lifesaving Museum), which loans artifacts and historic treasures from the Andrea Doria to museums for display. Bright is considered the foremost historical authority on the Andrea Doria, and his private collection is one of the most extensive in the world.

An avid deep diver using mixed-gas technology, both open- and closed-circuit, Bright has made more than 100 dives to both the Andrea Doria and the Empress of Ireland. Additionally, he has dived to many other major shipwrecks across the globe and has participated in the discovery, study and research of many recently-found shipwrecks.