Who is Colonel Haskin from Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft and what is their importance?

Colonel Haskin delivers a speech on experimental military equipment that explorers might find useful at the Explorers Club in New York City. Thor attends and becomes excited about the possible use of the equipment on his raft voyage. Peter Freuchen disdains the modern equipment, preferring the ancient ways of the kayak and igloo, thus encouraging Thor's use of an ancient raft to cross the Pacific from Peru to the South Sea Islands.