Stefan Panis

Stefan Panis began diving at the age of six with his father and obtained his first official diving certification in 1992. Over the years, his passion for diving developed into technical diving, cave diving and underwater photography.

Stefan has a particular fascination for shipwrecks and the stories behind them. His research goes beyond the underwater site itself, often taking him into historical archives to uncover the identity, history and fate of wrecks. He has completed a vast number of dives in the North Sea, with a particular focus on the English Channel and the Dover Straits, as well as around the world, including Sardinia, Portugal and Cuba.

He has participated in several successful diving expeditions dedicated to locating and identifying previously unknown or unidentified shipwrecks. Among these was the identification of the sailing ship Josephine Willis, lost in 1842.

Away from the sea, Stefan is a passionate mine diver. Together with the Mine Exploration Team, he documents Belgium's numerous flooded mines, combining exploration, photography and historical research to preserve their stories.

Stefan is also an author and contributor to several diving magazines and books and is the organiser of Dive Expo. More recently, he has been working with Pawel Truszynski on an extraordinary historical project concerning the discovery of Guinness beer dating from 1864 on the Mindoro wreck. The project explores the possibility of recreating the historic beer through a modern rebrew. Stefan will present this project at the upcoming Baltictech!.

Title: Bottles from the deep: When Louis Roederer meets Guinness

Two shipwrecks. Two extraordinary discoveries. Two bottles that survived more than a century beneath the sea.In this fascinating presentation, Stefan Panis and Paweł Truszyński share the stories behind their remarkable discoveries: the Louis Roederer champagne bottles found in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea, and a Guinness bottle dating back to 1864, discovered in a shipwreck in the English Channel. What can these bottles tell us about the past? And what happens when two completely different discoveries - Champagne from the Baltic and Guinness from the English Channel - come together through research? From underwater discovery and historical investigation to scientific analysis and new research projects, these bottles have opened the door to new questions, new discoveries, and exciting future projects. Two bottles. Two seas. One remarkable journey of discovery - from the deep to the laboratory and beyond.