Born in France and Canadian resident, Pierre Sauvadet is used to extensive travelling.
Pierre became fascinated by explorers. At the age of 20, after already 2 years of travel from Canada to Mozambique he built his first sailboat and sailed around the world single handed. This was a life at sea where he sailed and travelled for 10 years.
In 1990, while preparing a new boat in Japan, Pierre founds “Mers Magnetiques” a Franco-Japanese organization for Arctic ecology observation and conservation. His dream was to sail the Northern Sea Route along the USSR Arctic coast.
With the help of the Japanese polar community this eventually became a reality : In August 1991, “L'Astrolabe”, a French flagged polar supply vessel became the first non-military ship since 1922 to complete the Northeast Passage from France to Japan through the Arctic during a collaborative Franco-Japanese expedition sponsored by the Japanese media giant Asahi.
During the passage, Scientists onboard L’Astrolabe worked closely with European Space Agency as the expedition of "L'Astrolabe" coincided with the acquisition of the very first detailed SAR ice images from the ERS-1 satellite just launched a month before.
Then again, in 1993, aboard the Swedish icebreaker "Oden", Pierre works with the ESA and the French film production group LMK-Le Monde to realize a documentary about the possiblity of using satellite for Arctic exploration and knowledge.
Also a photographer, Pierre took part in several other expeditions which enabled him to gather precious information about how to manage Arctic logistics.
In 1995 Pierre received the grand prize from the Geneva, Switzerland, based "Henry Kummerman Foundation" for inovative thinking on new Arctic ship design.
Since 1998, Pierre worked on his life long dream: a modular and independent observation platform for Arctic winters, finalized in 2004 with Aurora Magnetica’s launch.