Dr. Cairns is a physicist, oceanographer, and lifelong inventor. His experience with underwater connectors began in 1964 working on a US Navy oceanographic research tower offshore of San Diego. His predecessor on the tower, Art Nelson, invented the world’s very first wet-mate electrical connectors (now commonly known as EO Connectors). Jim spent several years diving from the Navy’s platform to deploy, recover and repair subsea instrument arrays connectorized with hundreds of Nelson’s wet-mates, early versions of which were notoriously unreliable. That dangerous, grueling work led Jim to the idea of removing the point of contact of subsea connectors out of corrosive, conductive seawater as had always previously been done, and into a pressure-balanced chamber of dielectric oil. He patented the world’s first oil-filled, pressure-balanced underwater connectors in 1968, and has subsequently been granted more than sixty US patents on subsea electrical and fiber-optic interconnect devices, many of which are based on the oil-filled principle. Toward the end of his work on the research tower, Jim became a graduate student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) working alongside his graduate advisor and mentor, world renown oceanographer Walter Munk.

Dr. Cairn’s most successful inventions have been components for subsea fiber-optic and electrical communication networks. He licensed his early inventions, and later co-founded two significant companies. The first company, Challenger Marine Connectors focusing on multi-pass all-electrical wet-mates, was sold to Lockheed Corp. (now Lockheed-Martin) in the 1980’s. The second company Jim formed, Daytona Beach based Ocean Design, Inc., pioneered and produced both Nautilus electrical connectors, optical connectors, and hybrid (electro-optical) high voltage, multi-pass wet-mate connectors. ODI was sold in 2009 to Teledyne Instruments, Inc..

While Jim continues to innovate and invent, in recent years he has devoted a considerable portion of his time to helping inspire the next generation(s) of would-be inventors. He has authored two books on the subjects of inventing and successfully marketing intellectual property, and is a frequent invited speaker at area universities. In 2003 Dr. Cairns established The Cairns Foundation, a charitable organization supporting innovation by creative students.

Jim has received several prestigious awards for his contributions to marine science and technology, including:

• The Marine Technology Society’s Compass Distinguished Achievement Award (2003)
• The Marine Technology Society’s Lockheed Martin Award for Excellence in Marine Science and Engineering (2005)
• Inducted into The Offshore Energy Center Hall of Fame for his pioneering work in subsea technology (2017)
• Nominated into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2023
• Inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame in 2023

Dr. Cairn’s advances in subsea interconnect technology have allowed offshore systems to be constructed in profound ocean depths, greatly expanding the global area available for offshore energy and security. Over the past ten years, Jim has been developing what could be transformative and disruptive new elements in the realm of underwater connectors. He firmly believes that his latest innovations, the Pontus family of simple, lower-cost, high-reliability wet-mate connectors will fill a much-needed void in this ever-evolving market.