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WINTER 2012
COUR T E S Y M I CH A E L ME NDUNO / A QU A COR P S A RCH I V E S
I
t is a rare privilege to encounter someone as impressive yet unassuming and
gracious as R.W. “Bill” Hamilton, Ph.D. Hamilton died surrounded by family and
friends at age 81 on Sept. 16, 2011. “Dr. Bill” was a former chairman of DAN’s
board of directors, and his contributions to the world of diving are immeasurable.
His work led to the development of operational and decompression procedures
for divers, tunnel and caisson workers, astronauts and hyperbaric chambers. As
co-developer of the Decompression Computation and Analysis Program (DCAP),
Hamilton helped revolutionize decompression analysis. He created trimix and
nitrox tables, designed training programs for various certification agencies and
was a major contributor to the NOAA Diving Manual. His work in decompression
theory involved collaboration with
universities, commercial diving companies
and the military. The dive industry
recognized Hamilton with many significant
awards, and he served on influential
boards of directors of organizations
dedicated to the advancement of dive
research, medicine and safety. He had
a wonderful ability to make whatever he
was working on better. Likewise, everyone
who met Hamilton was a better person for
it. The dive industry lost a giant with his
passing
— Joel Silverstein
R.W. “Bill” Hamilton:
PRince of Gases
Studying dive fatalities to prevent future accidents
In 2011 Divers Alert Network
®
(DAN
®
) added a new offering to its online
education lineup: a new video lecture series featuring DAN experts discussing a
variety of topics of common interest to divers. The newest addition to the video
series is a look at diving fatalities presented by DAN President Dan Orr.
“Diver Fatalities: When Bad Things Happen to Good Divers” takes a look at
recreational dive fatalities using DAN’s analysis of nearly 1,000 dive fatalities
cases. The 45-minute presentation also includes a discussion of diving hazard
identification and mitigation with recommendations on how to improve safety.
The video lecture series is ideal for those wishing to teach the featured
topics in a group setting such as a dive club meeting. The video can be
viewed an unlimited number of times, so it’s also an excellent teaching tool for
continuing education courses.
The video series joins DAN’s online seminar series and real-time webinars;
additional offerings to the series will continue to release throughout 2012.
All online seminars are free to DAN Members, and access is automatically
included with DAN Membership. To access the seminars, simply visit
www.DAN.org and log in as a DAN Member.
ONLINE VIDEO
LECTURES
DiveR fatalities: WHen BaD tHinGs
HaPPen to GooD DiveRs
DIVE SLATE
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