Rene Theophile Nuytten, O.C., O.B.C.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Phil Nuytten, a proud Métis and adopted member of the Kwakiutl First Nations,
has made extraordinary contributions to deep-sea exploration. He began his career
as a commercial diver, but was driven to develop his own equipment through an
almost intuitive ability to understand the forces at work beneath the ocean’s surface.
His innovations, which have been widely adopted by industry and by major naval
powers, include a self-contained atmospheric diving apparatus called the Newtsuit,
the DeepWorker submersible and the Remora mobile rescue system. He is also a key
partner of NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations, where his creations are
used extensively for astronaut training.