Product History

Nautilus Dive Planner has been in development for 18 months. But that's not the entire history. The principal designers and authors of Nautilus Dive Planner have a very rich history in the decompression and technical diving fields. The work they have done individually and collectively over the past 40 years as set the tone for how decompression dive planning has been accomplished world wide. The team consists of:

• R. Dan Nafe - technical diver, educator, programmer and decompression specialist

• Joel D. Silverstein - technical diver, educator, author, and decompression operations specialist

• R.W. Bill Hamilton, PhD - Hamilton Research Ltd. the worlds foremost decompression physiologist.

• David Kenyon - Hamilton Research Ltd. lead developer and programmer of decompression software (DCAP)

Dan Nafe principle designer of Nautilus originally created the now historically significant decompression program called MigPlan.Mac back in the early 1990s when technical diving was first taking shape. MigPlan.Mac was revolutionary as it was the only program that would compute multi-level decompression schedules based on the user's chosen decompression algorithm. MigPlan became a cult product that was used by thousands of divers world wide. It was put on the "free-ware" market when Dan pursued other interests. Copies of MigPlan.Mac are still in use around the world.

Dan's work in diving education and decompression centers on computer systems programming. He is the founder of Scuba-Training.net the world's leading system for on-line interactive education for scuba divers. Scuba-Training.net is also the firm behind the SDI On-line training programs and dozens of Internet and intranet diving manufacturers web site ordering systems.

Joel Silverstein Co-Developer of Nautilus was one of the original beta testers and features contributor to the famed Abyss Advanced Dive Planning Software. Abyss dominated the decompression software marketplace for more than twelve years. Abyss' graphical user interface, the ability to model and modify algorithms and its ease of use set the tone for how many competitive products were ultimately made. Abyss Advanced Dive Planning software is no longer manufactured or supported. Joel is the VP and COO of Scuba Training and Technology Inc. with its subsidiary Tech Diving Limited. He has been involved in the technical diving field for more than 15 years, was publisher of Sub Aqua Journal in the 1990s' has led shipwreck expeditions all over the world, is the author of more than 5 books on nitrox and technical diving, a major contributor to the NOAA Diving Manual , decompression, nitrox and mixed gas sections.

Dr. R.W. Bill Hamilton is a physiologist with more than four decades of specialization in diving, aerospace, and environmental physiology, reflecting his particular interests in decompression, breathing gases, and the effects of pressure. He spent 10 years as a researcher in commercial diving with Union Carbide Corp. and its affiliate Ocean Systems Inc., and since then has been a consultant and independent physiologist. He has worked in different capacities in numerous laboratories all over the world. He is the leader in development of nitrogen-oxygen (nitrox) saturation-excursion decompression procedures, and was responsible for most of NOAA’s development work in this field. His Repex procedures for repetitive saturation-excursion diving serendipitously led to a highly effective method for managing exposure to oxygen.

Dr. Hamilton is co-developer with David J. Kenyon of the DCAP program with which he has done many types of decompression procedures, ranging from deep commercial diving to hyperbaric treatment in space to submarine free ascent. His custom decompression tables and related information strongly influenced the origination and development of technical diving. He has received several awards, including the NOGI, the DAN Rolex Award and had been honored as Diver of the Year by the Boston Sea Rovers and Beneath the Sea. He recently served as Chairman of the Board of Diver’s Alert Network.

Dr. Hamilton serves as a consultant to Scuba Training and Technology Inc. in the development and research associated with the Nautilus Dive Planner Software, it's algorithms and models.