Peter B. Bennett


Peter B. Bennett is the founder and former president and CEO of the Divers Alert Network, a non-profit organization devoted to assisting scuba divers in need. He is a professor of anesthesiology at Duke University Medical Center, and is currently the Senior Director of the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology at Duke. Bennett is recognized as a leading authority on the effects of high pressure on human physiology.
Bennett was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. He was employed at the Royal Navy Physiology Laboratory near Portsmouth for 20 years, beginning in 1953. During this time, he formed and headed the Defence and Civil Institute for Environmental Medicine in Canada.

Education

As a researcher, Bennett has performed studies of nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, submarine escape, decompression illness, ascent rates, and the effects of flying after diving. Bennett first described and coined the name of high pressure nervous syndrome, a diving disorder resulting from too much time breathing a high-pressure mixture of helium and oxygen known as heliox. Bennett was a consultant on the James Cameron underwater science fiction film The Abyss, in which a character experiences HPNS.
Bennett is credited with the invention of trimix breathing gas. In 1981, at Duke University Medical Center, he conducted an experiment called Atlantis III lasting 43 days, which involved compressing divers to an equivalent depth of, and slowly decompressing them to surface pressure, setting a world record in the process. In 45 years, Bennett has published over 200 scientific papers and six books.

Retirement

Dr. Bennett received the 2002 Diving Equipment and Marketing Association Reaching Out Award for his contribution to the diving industry, and the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2002 award for contributions to business in the life sciences. He stepped down as President of the Divers Alert Network of America on 30 June 2003, after 23 years at the helm. Bennett was pressured by board members to step down, in reaction to alleged improprieties in his handling of the organization's finances.
From 2004 to 2007, Bennett served as Executive Director of the International Divers Alert Network.
As of 2007, Bennett has been serving as the executive director of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society.