Dominique Rissolo

Dominique Rissolo holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from UC Riverside, and did his undergraduate work at San Diego State University. He is a former executive director of the Waitt Institute, and co-directed of the National Geographic Society-Waitt Foundation Grants Program and the Rapid Ocean Conservation (ROC) Grants Program on behalf of the Waitt Foundation. The Waitt Institute funded a major expedition and exploration of the Mary Celestia shipwreck in Bermuda waters in 2011 (with Rissolo participating in that expedition). Rissolo subsequently joined the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego as special projects coordinator for the Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative and CISA3, with a major focus on working with graduate and undergraduate students on cultural heritage-related projects. Rissolo has been involved in a number of marine archaeology projects including deep-water remote sensing surveys. As an archaeologist, Rissolo’s research interests include the development of ancient maritime trade networks along the Yucatan coast. His work on the Yucatan Peninsula also focused on ancient Maya and Paleoamerican cave and cenote use as well as coastal and near-coastal settlement patterns and ecosystems. Throughout his fieldwork, Rissolo has been active in local initiatives and the development of sustainable cultural heritage preservation strategies. Rissolo also serves on the NOAA Ocean Exploration Advisory Board.

For more information on Rissolo, see QI news stories:
“UC San Diego Scientists Race to Document Mexico’s Maya Ruins” (Jan. 24, 2023)
“QI Internship Provides Pathway to Workplace for Neurodiverse Youth” (Sept. 15, 2022)
“Diving for the Bones of the Ice Age” (June 11, 2020)
“Technology at UC San Diego Helps Scientists Unlock Mysteries of the Earliest Americans” (June 6, 2020)
“Local Entrepreneur Donates $225K for UC San Diego Effort to Document Ancient Underwater Cave” (March 19, 2018)
“QI Researchers Help Scripps Scientists Document and Model Coral Reefs for 100 Island Challenge” (Nov. 20, 2017)
“Tackling ‘Ocean Exploration in a Sea of Data’ at the National Ocean Exploration Forum” (Nov. 3, 2017)
“QI Researchers Participate in International Conference on At-Risk Cultural Heritage” (Sept. 11, 2017)