Hello, my name is Felix Butschek and I am extremely fortunate and proud to be the 2016 European Rolex Scholar. With the awards ceremony in New York City, my scholarship year a has certainly started with a bang. The New York weekend has a reputation for being spectacular and overwhelming to every newcomer, and it lived up to all these attributes and more.
From the start, the watch fitting at the Rolex headquarters on Thursday, I experienced an unbelievable generosity and kindness of Rolex as the main sponsor of the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society®, who I cannot thank enough for their incredible support.
It was a great pleasure to meet my predecessor, Danny Copeland, for dinner the same evening. His presentation about his scholarship year at the Saturday symposium in the Explorers Club has made it abundantly clear what a hard act I have to follow. In fact, all of last year’s interns and scholars at the symposium as well as the incredible venue were a huge source of inspiration. Out of my personal interest in polar exploration and diving, Kelvin Murray’s talk on high-latitude diving
and his expertise was fascinating and I hope also to follow some of his tracks to the white continent. Richard Vevers was yet another inspiring guest speaker, who opened my eyes to the power of underwater 3D imaging.
The Explorers Club, was founded in 1904 as a society of adventurers and explorers interested in expeditions to the remote corners of our planet and universe. With most of the unexplored parts of earth being underwater, what would be a more fitting location for this symposium? A huge Thank you to Rolex for sponsoring this fantastic event.
The evening events were equally as exciting as the morning symposium. At the courtesy of the Divers Alert Network, the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society got together at the Terrace Club for an informal dinner, at which Chris Melbern, the North American Scholar, Maya Santangelo, the Australasian Scholar and I were introduced and crowned by the outgoing scholars.
The annual awards ceremony on Sunday was breath-taking. Whatever inspiration was not already spread during the morning symposium at the Explorers Club, it was packed into captivating movies of the outgoing scholars and engaging speeches by Joe MacInnis and Sylvia Earle. Their thoughts on climate change and our ability to take responsibility and action were moving and encouraging.
Generosity and enthusiasm were a trope throughout the weekend, exemplified in the Board of Directors who I would like to thank for their efforts in making this scholarship a reality. The weekend has completely blown me of my socks and I cannot express how much I appreciate the efforts by the former President of the Society Mike Emmerman and his family who have planned and organized so much the annual gathering and hosted a wonderful Sunday brunch to conclude the weekend — thank you. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Heather Burleson, Lionel Schürch and Stewart Wicht from Rolex for their support and belief in the society and scholars. I hope to live up to all the expectations and trust throughout my scholarship year.
My first adventure of my scholarship journey is the PADI instructor course in Ireland, from which you will be reading soon.
