Dr David Blackman – NAS Vice President

David was a founding member of the Council for Nautical Archaeology, the predecessor of the NAS, in 1964, and its Chairman from 1975/6. He organised the first international conference in Britain on marine archaeology in 1971 and then spent 20 years at the European Parliament, before going to Athens to direct the British School of Archaeology. He now lives in Oxford,  recently co-authored a book on Ancient Shipsheds, and continues his research into ancient harbours.


Dr Lucy Blue – NAS Vice President

Lucy is a former chair of NAS and is senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Southampton, and Maritime Archaeological Director of the Honor Frost Foundation. Her focus of research is maritime ethnography and Capacity building with respect to maritime heritage. She primarily works in the Arab world, the eastern Mediterranean and the western Indian Ocean. Lucy has been a member of NAS since 1984 and is an active member of the Society's publication sub-committee.



Chris Dobbs – NAS Vice President

Chris has been heavily involved with the NAS ever since attending the first meeting of the NAS Steering Committee in 1980. He was an archaeological Supervisor on the Mary Rose during the excavations from 1979 to 1982. He lectures on maritime archaeology and museology at a number of universities in the UK as well as internationally.



Robert Yorke – NAS Vice President

Bob was one of the founder members of the Society undertaking the conversion of the Nautical Archaeology Trust into the NAS, and was then its treasurer, then Chairman from 1987 to 1991. He was one of the founders of the Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee in 1988 of which he has been chairman since 1995.



Dr Stella Demesticha – NAS Vice President

Stella is an Associate Professor of Maritime Archaeology at the Department of History and Archaeology, University of Cyprus. She specializes in maritime archaeology, with a focus on shipwrecks, maritime transport containers, ancient seaborne trade routes and economy in the eastern Mediterranean. In 2011 she created the Maritime Archaeological Research Laboratory (MARELab) at the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus, through which she conducts her fieldwork. She currently directs two ongoing underwater excavation projects at the Mazotos and the Nissia Shipwreck sites.


Associate Professor Mark Staniforth - NAS Vice President 

Mark Staniforth became involved in maritime archaeology in the mid 1970s as a volunteer on the excavation of the colonial vessel James Matthews and the Dutch shipwreck Batavia as well as a Foundation member of the Maritime Archaeology Association of Western Australia (MAAWA). Since 2008, he has been a trainer on UNESCO badged capacity building programs in Colombia, the Solomon Islands, Vietnam and Thailand, as well as contributing to the Training Manual for the UNESCO Foundation Course on the Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage in Asia and the Pacific.

He is currently a member of ICOMOS and an expert member of two ICOMOS International Scientific Committees – ICOMOS-ICUCH (International Committee on the Underwater Cultural Heritage) and ICOMOS-ICAHM (International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management). He is an adjunct Associate Professor at Flinders University and in 2012 he was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).

Mark is an NAS Senior Tutor, teaching NAS courses around the world, including Australia and Vietnam.


Marc-Andre Bernier -  NAS Vice President 

Marc-André is a Canadian archaeologist who specialises in underwater archaeology. Described as the "Indiana Jones of the deep seas" by the Toronto Star, Marc-André was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, and educated at the University of Ottawa, from which he received a BA degree in Classical Studies and a MA degree in Greek Archaeology. He joined the Underwater Archaeology Team of Parks Canada in 1990 and, since 2008, has been its manager.

In 2014, Marc-André was among the four inaugural recipients of the Lawrence J. Burpee Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, presented for his work in the discovery of the wreck of HMS Erebus.  Marc-André is an NAS Senior Tutor based within Parks Canada.