Who is Pierre Aronnax?

Pierre Aronnax is a professor; he works for the Paris Museum of Natural History. He also leads a voyage on an American shipped called the Abraham Lincoln. His goal is to find an aggressive sea creature attacking and destroying ships around the world. However, an explosion lands him on Nemo's submarine.
Aronnax is attracted to Nemo and the Nautilus because his driving passion in life is research and gaining knowledge about the ocean and its creatures. His devotion to science and his lust for knowledge cause him, at first, to cast a blind eye on Nemo's excesses. He is willing to put up with the man to get access to the information and data he craves, which the submarine affords him in a way a surface ship cannot. Only after Nemo attacks and destroys a warship does Aronnax's moral instinct override his quest for knowledge.