René Théophile Nuytten | |
Honorific Suffix: | OC OBC |
Birth Date: | 1941 8, df=yes |
Birth Place: | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
Nationality: | Canadian |
Occupation: | Entrepreneur, deep-ocean explorer, scientist, inventor |
Years Active: | 1955–2023 |
Employer: | Self |
Organization: | Nuytco Research Ltd. |
Known For: | Newtsuit |
René Théophile "Phil" Nuytten (13 August 194113 May 2023) was a Canadian entrepreneur, deep-ocean explorer, scientist, inventor of the Newtsuit, and founder of Nuytco Research Ltd.[1] [2] [3]
He pioneered designs related to diving equipment,[3] and worked with NASA for more than 25 years on applications related to undersea and space technologies.[2]
Today, his equipment is used by a wide range of organizations, including the National Geographic Society, NASA, and is standard for almost a dozen navies.[3]
Nuytten was born in Vancouver, British Columbia of Métis ancestry. He was subsequently formally adopted into the Kwakiutl nation.[3] He began to design diving gear as a teenager, and opened the first dive shop in Western Canada at the age of 15.[3] At the age of 16, he was one of the first two rescue divers on scene after the 1958 Second Narrows Bridge collapse.[4]
Nuytten worked in numerous countries as a commercial diver. In his work for the commercial, scientific, and military industries, he developed equipment and deep-water diving, and technical diving techniques.[2]
During the 1960s and 1970s, Nuytten was involved in the development of mixed-gas decompression tables. He was part of a team that accomplished the first 600 FSW (feet of seawater) ocean "bounce" dives on Project Nesco.[2]
In the 1970s, he co-founded Oceaneering International, Inc. This company became one of the largest underwater skills companies in the world.[2]
In 1983, Nuytten appeared on the cover of National Geographic due to his dives into arctic waters to Breadalbane.[2] [5]
Nuytten died the 13 May 2023 aged 81, his family releasing an obituary detailing the significance of his life and contributions to the scientific field.[6] [7]
Resulting from his contributions to marine diving technologies, Nuytten appeared in the media numerous times, including: National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, Popular Science, Discovery, Fortune, Scientific American and Business Week.[2]
For twenty years, Nuytten was featured in and worked on the production of films and television programs based on technology he developed, such as:[1]
Nuytten provided the submersibles and was the senior technical advisor for the film The Abyss. His Newtsuit is featured in the IMAX movie Flight of the Aquanaut.[1]
See main article: Newtsuit. In 1979, Nuytten started work on the Newtsuit, a one-atmosphere diving suit. The revolutionary new design featured fully articulated rotary joints.[8] This patented breakthrough design is now used in many subsequent atmospheric diving suits.[2]
In 2000, Nuytten announced that he was developing a new type ultra lightweight powered exoskeleton called the Exosuit This new design was being considered for use as a submarine escape device by the Canadian Department of Defense.[2]
It was announced in September 2018 that Nuytten was designing and planned to build an underwater human settlement off of the coast of Vancouver, Canada, in the Pacific Ocean.[9] A prototype was to be built as early as 2019, with cylindrical living chambers powered from Stirling engines powered by hydrothermal vent sources.[10] The buildings would be built on land and transported likely to the Juan de Fuca Strait, and submerged a few thousand feet below the surface.[11]