Dr. Timmy Gambin: Maritime Archaeologist
Timmy obtained his PhD at Bristol University in the UK. He’s now a lecturer at the University of Malta and is the lead archaeologist for the Aurora Ocean Exploration Trust.
Roberto Rinaldi: Diver
Roberto is a leading Italian underwater cameraman and deep diving expert. Roberto has been in the business for over 25 years and has travelled the oceans of the world – some of them in company of legendary explorer Jacques Cousteau.
Dr. Annelise Freisenbruch: Historian
Annelise is a British classicist who trained at Cambridge University. She is an expert on the role of women in ancient Rome and is the author of “Caesars’ Wives: Sex, Power and Politics in the Roman Empire.”
PRODUCTION
Dr. Robert Hartel: Producer/Director
Rob is a biochemist who entered the world of TV after completing an MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College in London. Rob’s storytelling skill, combined with a visual sensibility honed by a decade at Windfall Films, has allowed him to produce and direct a number of high profile documentaries, such as Big, Bigger, Biggest, Generals at War, Mummy: The Inside Story, Men of Iron, and Bioterror Alert – as well as the award-winning Dambusters and My Brilliant Brain.
Ian Duncan: Executive Producer
Ian Duncan spent four years at the BBC before leaving in 1987 to form Windfall Films with David Dugan and Oliver Morse. He has produced films across different genres – science, natural history, arts, documentary features and drama. These have won many awards including a Banff Rocky, an RTS award, a Cable Ace, a Chicago Gold Hugo, an Emmy, the Grand Award at New York Festivals, and awards at Jackson Hole and Missoula Wildlife film festivals.
William R. Grant: Executive in Charge
William R. Grant is director of history, science and nature at WNET.ORG, parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW 21 in New York. He joined WNET in 1995 after 12 years at WGBH in Boston, where he was managing editor of Frontline and executive editor of Nova. At WGBH he also served as executive producer of Living Against the Odds and Made In America?
At WNET.ORG, Grant is in charge of one of a documentary production department which brings to national broadcast programs in the areas of natural history, science, history, business, travel, and other topics. While at WNET.ORG he has also been executive producer of Innovation and Going Places and numerous miniseries, including America on Wheels, Savage Skies, Savage Earth, Savage Seas, Knife to the Heart, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, On the Trail of Mark Twain, The American President, In Search of Ancient Ireland, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Slavery and the Making of America, African American Lives, The Supreme Court 1, Looking for Lincoln and the continuing series Secrets of the Dead. He has been responsible, as executive in charge of production, for Nature, one of public television’s most watched continuing series, and the miniseries Savage Planet, Secrets of the Pharaohs, Warship, Africa, 1900 House, Frontier House, Manor House, The Secret Life of the Brain, Colonial House, Texas Ranch House, Warplane, Ground War and the Human Spark.
Prior to joining WGBH in 1983, Grant was for 14 years a reporter and editor at two of the nation’s largest daily newspapers – the Detroit Free Press and the San Francisco Chronicle, where his work won numerous awards. In 1979-80 he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2001, and in 2005 was named to the University of Kentucky’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni.
Programs produced under his supervision have won 13 national News and Documentary Emmy awards, including one for the 2005 series Slavery and the Making of America, and one for the 2004 series DNA, and six George Foster Peabody awards, including one for the 2002 series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.
Jared Lipworth: Executive Producer
From 2007 to 2010 Jared Lipworth was director of science programs at WNET. In addition to Secrets of the Dead, he executive produced Ground War, Curious, The Human Spark, and The Mysterious Human Heart, which won a 2008 Emmy for Science, Technology, and Nature programming.
Prior to becoming executive producer and then director of science programs, Lipworth was the series producer for the department’s technology series, Innovation. He also served as series producer for Warrior Challenge, Secrets of the Pharaohs, the Emmy Award-winning Frontier House and The Secret Life of the Brain, Warship, Taxi Dreams, Echoes From the White House and Savage Planet. Additional credits at THIRTEEN include post-production producer for The American President and 1900 House and production assistant for Savage Seas, On The Trail of Mark Twain, The Great Balloon Race and Stories of Lupus.
He is currently the executive producer of science and nature at National Geographic Television.
