Expedition Team
A diverse team of experts accompanies this expedition — seasoned naturalists, undersea specialists, and researchers — who will share their knowledge and insights with you and bring each destination to life. Listed below are some of the experts and the departure date(s) they will be joining.
Kim Heacox
Award-winning writer, photographer, and conservationist Kim Heacox has written two books for National Geographic centered on the Antarctic continent: Shackleton: The Antarctic Challenge focuses on the 1914-16 Endurance expedition. Antarctica: The Last Continent is dedicated to exploring the coldest, windiest, highest, driest, least populated, and most remote corner of the world. A gifted storyteller, Kim spends much of his time writing about and photographing life in Earth's polar regions, and his photography has appeared in National Geographic magazine.
Greg Marshall
Greg Marshall is a marine biologist, a filmmaker, and an executive producer for National Geographic Television. Greg invented and continues to lead development of Crittercam, a system of animal-borne cameras that capture video showing the world through animals' eyes. His work has been featured in numerous films covering more than 40 species from fur seals to blue whales. Greg uses media to connect audiences to wildlife with the aim of inspiring a conservation ethic and call to action.
David Doubilet
Acclaimed underwater photographer David Doubilet estimates he has spent nearly half his life in the sea since taking his first underwater photograph at the age of 12 with a Brownie Hawkeye camera sealed in a bag. Exploring the world's waters, David has photographed in the depths of such places as the southwest Pacific, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Tasmania, Scotland, the northwest Atlantic, and Antarctica. His work has taken him to freshwater ecosystems such as Botswana's Okavango Delta and Canada's St. Lawrence River. He has photographed stingrays, sponges, and sleeping sharks in the Caribbean as well as shipwrecks in the South Pacific, the Atlantic, and at Pearl Harbor. He has produced more than 70 stories for National Geographic magazine and several books, including Fish Face, The Kingdom of Coral: Australia's Great Barrier Reef, and Water Light Time. David has been awarded the prestigious Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award and the Lennart Nilsson Award in Photography.
James Balog
James is the founder and director of the Extreme Ice Survey, a monumental and stunning look at the impact of climate change on the world’s glaciers. Shocked by the changes he saw while shooting the June 2007 National Geographic cover story on melting glaciers, Balog, who has a graduate degree in geomorphology, initiated the most wide-ranging glacier study ever conducted, using innovative time-lapse, video, and conventional photography at sites around the globe. For nearly 30 years, James has broken new ground in the art of photographing nature. His work has earned him the Leica Medal of Excellence, the Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure, the Aspen Institute’s Visual Arts & Design Award, the first-ever International League of Conservation Photographers League Award, and the North American Nature Photography Association’s “Outstanding Photographer of the Year” prize. James is the author of Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report, along with more than half a dozen other books. His photography and multimedia presentations have been featured on Capitol Hill and at the “COP-15” United Nations Climate Change Conference, TED Global, the International Scientific Congress, an E.U. Environmental Ministers meeting, the U.S. Embassy in Finland, the Explorers Club, the Aspen Institute’s Environment Forum, and National Geographic symposia.
Sisse Brimberg and Cotton Coulson
Photographers Sisse Brimberg and Cotton Coulson have collectively photographed more than 50 stories for National Geographic and National Geographic Traveler magazines. They have spent most of their careers working in Europe, shooting stories from the Arctic and Scandinavia to Italy and France. Sisse and Cotton have been awarded prizes by Pictures of the Year International, the National Press Photographers Association, White House Press Photographers Association, and Communication Arts. Based in Denmark, Sisse and Cotton will share their love of photography and their insights into the history and legacy of the Vikings.
Edward J. Larson
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Larson explored Antarctica extensively for his latest book, An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science. He has held the Fulbright Program's John Adams Chair in American Studies and participated in the National Science Foundation's Antarctica Artists and Writers Program. Edward has written nearly a dozen books, including Summer for the Gods, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998.
Kevin Schafer
National Geographic photographer Kevin Schafer is a founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers, Kevin was named the 2007 Outstanding Nature Photographer of the Year by the North American Nature Photographers Association. His work has appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Audubon; and his books include Penguin Planet and Living Light.
