Professor Murray Roberts from the School of Life Sciences represented Heriot-Watt University at the naming of the Royal Research Ship Discovery at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton on 10 October 2013.
This ship is the fourth in a long line of research ships to bear this name, a pedigree including the RRS Discovery launched in 1901 that took both Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their Antarctic expeditions.
Following tradition, the new ship was named a Royal Research Ship by HRH Princess Anne.
The new RRS Discovery is a £75m vessel owned and operated by the Natural Environment Research Council. She is one of two new vessels which, along with the RRS James Cook, give NERC scientists a global reach in marine science.
Alongside more traditional oceanographic research, RRS Discovery is capable of deploying deep ocean remotely operated vehicles and deep-seabed coring equipment making her an ideal platform for full multi-disciplinary expeditions.