Alex Hearn is a marine fisheries ecologist with 20 years of experience working in Galápagos. He has been a professor and researcher at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and the Galápagos Science Center since 2015. He obtained his BSc in Oceanography and Marine Biology from the University of Southampton, UK; and his MSc and PhD from Heriot-Watt University in the Orkney Islands. He has worked on the Galápagos islands since 2002 on fisheries research and management, and spearheaded the development of the Shark Research Program since 2006. He is a founding member and current board president of the regional research network, MigraMar. Alex was made co-champion of the Mission Blue Galapagos Hope Spot in 2020.

His current projects include using acoustic and satellite telemetry to establish the migratory pathways of sharks, evaluating the movement ecology of the pelagic assemblage around oceanic islets, and monitoring shark nursery grounds. Alex has published over 60 peer review research articles and over a dozen book chapters. He recently led the multi-institutional team of biologists to develop a blueprint for improved conservation of the open waters outside the Galápagos Marine Reserve, a process which resulted in the creation of the new Hermandad Reserve in 2022.

Alison Criscitiello is a National Geographic Explorer, ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer. She explores the history of sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. This involves long months of living in a tent and drilling ice cores in places like Antarctica, Alaska and the Canadian high Arctic. Criscitiello’s work also focuses on environmental contaminant histories in ice cores from the Canadian high Arctic and the water towers of the Canadian Rockies. She is the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab and an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta. In 2010, she led the first all-women’s ascent of Lingsarmo, a 22,818-foot peak in the Indian Himalaya. Criscitiello has received three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, the John Lauchlan and Mugs Stump alpine climbing awards, and she earned the first Ph.D. in glaciology ever conferred by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Criscitiello is the founder and co-director of Girls on Ice Canada. When not busy shivering for science, Criscitiello seeks out the cold for fun, working as a climbing ranger in the national parks and guiding expeditions to peaks in the Andes, Alaska and the Himalaya.

Chiara Goia is a documentary photographer based in Italy. She is a contributor to numerous publications, including National Geographic magazine, and her main interest is environmental and climate change-related issues focusing on human impact. As a National Geographic Explorer, she is working on a project features about the marble quarries of Carrara, in Tuscany, in which she aims to create a visual history of the excavated mountains, shedding light on the complex relationship between humans and nature.

Geographer, glaciologist, National Geographic Emerging Explorer, and TED Fellow M Jackson can often be found exploring some of the world’s most remote Arctic environments. She has worked in Iceland for over a decade and completed three Fulbright grants studying how climate change is affecting communities near the fishing village of Höfn. Her first book, While Glaciers Slept: Being Human in a Time of Climate Change, blends her own personal history with climate science. M’s 2019 book, The Secret Lives of Glaciers, explores the complex impacts of glacier change for communities along the southeastern coast of Iceland. Her 2023 book, The Ice Sings Back, is her first novel. M is also the Climate & Energy host for Crash Course and she starred as the science expert in the Netflix series, Pirate Gold of Adak Island.

Drew Rush is a wildlife and natural history photographer with a passion for national parks. Before embarking on a career in photography, Drew spent ten years guiding on the Snake River and taking people into the heart of Yellowstone National Park. His photography has appeared in numerous international publications, such as National Parks magazine and National Geographic: Complete Photography, and has also been displayed at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming. Drew has recently been working in the Yellowstone-Tetons region on several long-term projects for National Geographic magazine.

Erika Larsen is a photographer and multidisciplinary storyteller known for her essays, which document cultures that maintain close ties with nature. Larsen has shot multiple stories for National Geographic magazine—from following Sàmi reindeer herders across the Scandinavian Arctic to exploring the significance of the horse in Native American culture. Erika was also part of the team that produced the magazine’s 2016 single topic Yellowstone Issue, and she contributed to Yellowstone: A Journey Through America’s Wild Heart, published by National Geographic Books. Larsen has been a Fulbright Fellow for her study of the North Sàmi language, resulting in her first monograph, “Sàmi, Walking With Reindeer,” released in 2013. Currently, she is a National Geographic Society Fellow exploring the landscape of the Americas in relation to the animals and natural resources which are interpreting of our current environment. Her images are represented by Nat Geo Creative, and her work has been shown in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Fotografiska Museum in Sweden, and the Reggio Calabria National Archaeological Museum in Italy, as well as at Visa pour l’Image in Perpignan, France. Erika is also one of the featured photographers in Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment, which profiles the lives and work of important photojournalists and goes behind the lens of their individual assignments.

Big cat researcher and conservationist Dr. Florian Weise has spent nearly two decades on the African continent studying and protecting endangered species. His work helps to reduce conflicts between southern Africa’s large cats—cheetah, lion, and leopard—and local farmers. Florian combines traditional and modern methods in his conservation research, always looking for innovative ways to improve human-wildlife coexistence. For example, he helped develop an app that warns people about approaching lions, giving them an opportunity to avoid dangerous encounters or attacks on livestock. He is also a National Geographic Explorer, combining his passion for fieldwork and the outdoors. After leading several projects throughout Namibia and in the Okavango Delta, he now manages a zoo in Germany. Florian will join the Namibia program at N/a’an Ku Sê.

Hiroki Kobayashi is a photographer, originally from Hiroshima, Japan, and based in Lisbon, Portugal since 2023. Kobayashi has produced varied bodies of work focusing on people and places in Brooklyn and Japan. His photographs have been published in National Geographic, The New York Times, The New York Times Style magazine Japan, The Guardian, and Photo District News, among others. While living in the U.S., he has had solo exhibitions of his work at FiveMyles Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was awarded the Brooklyn Arts Council Regrant Program in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Ingi Mehus is a storytelling facilitator, social entrepreneur, and National Geographic Explorer born in South Korea and raised in Norway, dedicated to cultivating an inclusive and equitable world that celebrates diversity. She travels across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa to facilitate personal storytelling journeys that foster empathy, proximity, and collaborations between diverse groups of people and places. Ingi started her career working with international migration across four continents with local NGOs, UNHCR, and IOM; however, her dissatisfaction with the polarizing migration narratives encouraged her to found Pocket Stories, an organization to create a more inclusive narrative for migration. She is also an Obama Europe Leader, European Youth Press’s Prix awardee, TEDx speaker, ChangemakerXchange facilitator for change, Ashoka Hellopreneur, and Bosch alumnus.

Justine Ammendolia is an Ph.D. student at Dalhousie University that researches environmental plastic pollution in Eastern Canada. In 2014, she was awarded the National Geographic Young Explorer Grant to travel to Eastern Greenland to research Arctic seabirds and lived off-grid for six weeks. During this time, she fostered a deep passion for protecting the corners of our planet and their unique ecosystems, particularly those in our Northern environments. Her scientific work focuses on plastic pollution both big and small with citizen science and figuring out solutions to keep plastics out of the environment. Justine has worked on various projects ranging from surveying marine debris on remote beaches on the island of Newfoundland to tracking plastic pollution from the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto. Her recent National Geographic Assignment brought her to the remote sandbar island of Sable Island (an island with more wild horses and seals than people!) to research how microplastics are traveling by air around the world! Justine has worked as a National Geographic Expert on Expeditions in Patagonia, Svalbard, Greenland, and Norway and actively works with National Geographic Education to connect with classrooms to share her scientific adventures about studying trash with students. Justine is passionate about youth leadership and sits as a mentor on the Youth Council for the Chief Science Advisor of Canada and advocates for diversity in natural sciences.

National Geographic Photographer, Kiliii Yuyan, illuminates stories of the Arctic and human communities connected to the land and sea. Informed by ancestry that is both Nanai/Hezhe (Indigenous East Asian) and Chinese-American, he has traveled across the polar regions working with Indigenous cultures, wildlife, and underwater. On assignment, he has survived a stalking polar bear, escaped pounding waves diving with sea otters, and found kinship at the edges of the world. Kiliii has photographed the cover of National Geographic Magazine twice, producing nine stories for National Geographic since 2015, including the July 2022 cover story on Native North America, migratory birds of the Arctic, and Greenland’s kayak culture. His story on Indigenous conservation from Mongolia to Palau will comprise the August 2024 issue of the Geographic. Kiliii is the 2023 recipient of the National Geographic Eliza Scidmore Award and is a National Geographic Explorer. Kiliii is also an award-winning contributor to TIME, Vogue, WIRED and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Sirachai “Shin” Arunrugstichai is an independent photojournalist and marine biologist, specializing in marine conservation stories. He is an Associate Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and a National Geographic Explorer. Shin regularly works for various conservation organizations and covers news as a stringer for Getty Images. His photographs have been published in National Geographic, Smithsonian, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Guardian, among many others. And when he is not fortunate enough to be photographing stories in the field, Shin often collaborates on shark and ray research in the waters of Southeast Asia, which he calls home.

Skylar Tibbits is the founder and co-director of the Self-Assembly Lab housed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) International Design Center. The Self-Assembly Lab focuses on self-assembly and programmable material technologies for novel manufacturing, products, and construction processes. His invention of 4D printing has established a unique area of design research focused on programmable materials that can sense and actuate in response to internal or external stimuli. His work on self-assembly has demonstrated the scalability of this natural construction phenomenon with synthetic design and fabrication systems. The research is the first to apply the principles of self-assembly to construction and manufacturing: for example, a cell phone that can build itself, a chair that self-assembles, and the self-construction of aerial balloons. Skylar is an assistant professor of Design Research in the Department of Architecture at MIT where he teaches graduate and undergraduate design studios and co-teaches “How to Make (Almost) Anything,” a seminar at MIT’s Media Lab with Neil Gershenfeld. Skylar is also the Editor-In-Chief of the 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Journal and the founder of SJET LLC, a small multi-disciplinary design practice.