50 Changemakers the World Show Know About

The Explorers Club 50 (EC50) program amplifies explorers from around the globe and across a wide field of disciplines that push the boundaries of exploration.

Naming these global exploration leaders to the EC50 shines a bright light on their extraordinary work and provides the recognition they so deserve.

June 13, 2022

By: Discovery and The Explorers Club

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Photo By: Rob Dunbar

Photo By: Shane Gross, The Nature Conservancy

Photo By: Ryan Struck

Photo By: John Aini

Photo By: Suzanne Restle

Photo By: Judy Wang

Photo By: Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative and DroneLab at Qualcomm Institute

Photo By: Luke Hosty

Photo By: Adolfo Iván Batún Alpuche

Photo By: Devlin Gandy

Photo By: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

Photo By: Brian Vernor

Photo By: C. Ward

Photo By: Weston Wells

Photo By: Paninnguaq Lind Jensen

Photo By: Matt Reyes

Photo By: Marley Parker

Photo By: Stefano Livi

Photo By: Isai Madriz

Photo By: Tessa Kier

Photo By: Julie Argyle

Photo By: Henry Harte

Photo By: Wilson Wai-Yin Cheung

Photo By: Ullanaq Ingemann (Ann is second to the right)

Photo By: Gabriel Ooka

Photo By: Julio C. Carrión

Photo By: Falling Walls Foundation

Photo By: Michael Balick

Photo By: Laith Ali

Photo By: David Donnelly

Photo By: Ignacio Oficialdegui

Photo By: C. S. “Paddy” Reid, Ontario Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, Canada.

Photo By: Jose Galan

Photo By: Courtesy of Sarah K. Carmichael, PhD

Photo By: Wang Baoshan

Photo By: Hearts in the Ice

Photo By: Inken Dworak-Schultz

Photo By: Julio C. Carrión

Photo By: Taegyu Choi

Photo By: Courtesy of Dr. Moses Pulei

Photo By: Wangchuk

Photo By: Rani Sridhar

Photo By: A. J. Giordano

Photo By: Ken Seligson

Photo By: Courtesy of Patricia Martin Morales

Photo By: Joe Platko

Photo By: Moriba Jah

Photo By: Chris Jeyes

Wavemakers

Cassandra Brooks, PhD - Marine Scientist; Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder

Natalie Miaoulis - Fisheries Specialist, The Nature Conservancy

Louis Harris - Educator and Activist; Founder, The Black Surfing Association

John Aini - Activist; Founder and Director, Ailan Awareness

Innovators

Aimee Morgana - Interspecies Communication Researcher; Founder, N’Kisi Institute

Yanlin Liu - Wildlife Conservationist; Director of Science, China Felid Conservation

Vid Petrovic - Digital Archaeologist; Researcher, Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative and the DroneLab at Qualcomm Institute

Brett Howell - Conservationist; Founder, Howell Conservation Fund

Advocates

Dr. Adolfo Iván Batún Alpuche – Archaeologist; Professor, Universidad de Oriente

Andrés Alfonso Ruzo-Callejas – Geoscientist; Founder and Director, Boiling River Project

Ekwoge Abwe – Primatologist; Manager, San Diego Zoo's African Forest Program

Erick Cedeño – Cyclist; Board member, Bikepacking Roots

Creators

George McKenzie, Jr – Documentarian; Technician, Path of the Panther Project

John Mack – Visual Artist preserving awe for nature in contemporary age of digital distraction

Paninnguaq Lind Jensen – Tattooist; Advocating for Indigenous Inuit stories

Rachel Sussman – Artist; Author, “The Oldest Living Things in the World”

Seekers

Jessica Sandoval, PhD – Engineer; Pilot, Remotely Operated Vehicles

Stefano A. Livi, PHD – Planetologist; Institute Scientist, Southwest Research Institute

R. Isaí Madriz, Ph.D. – Patagonian Entomologist; Alumnus, Fulbright Research Program

Storytellers

Josie Iselin – Artist; Designer, working at the confluence of art, science and ocean activism

Rick McIntyre – Wolf Researcher, Yellowstone National Park

Tom Martienssen – Filmmaker; Founder, Dustoff Films

Wilson Wai-Yin Cheung – Glaciologist; Founder, Asia Youth Alpine Mentors Program

Changemakers

Ann Andreasen – Educator and advocate; Principal, The Uummannaq Children’s Home

Anthony Ochieng Onyango – Kenyan Wildlife Ecologist; Founder, Biophilic Conservation

Francisco Javier Robayo – Conservation Biologist; Executive Director of Fundación EcoMinga

Theo Anagnostopoulos – Educator; Founder, SciCo

Protectors

Gregory Plunkett – Botanist and evolutionary biologist; Director of Molecular Systematics, New York Botanical Garden

Hana Raza – Kurdish conservationist working to save the endangered Persian Leopard, Northern Iraq

Natalie Schmitt – Conservation Geneticist; Team leader, WildTechDNA

Ignacio Oficialdegui – Spanish Biologist & Polar Explorer; Technical Director, Unexplored Antarctica Expedition

Luminaries

Dr. Alicia Colson – Ethno- archaeologist; Co-founder, Exploration Revealed

Salima Ikram – Distinguished Professor of Egyptology, the American University in Cairo; Research Fellow, Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum

Sarah K. Carmichael, PhD – Geochemist of mass extinctions; Professor, Appalachian State University

William Lucas Lindesay OBE – Geographer; Founder, International Friends of the Great Wall

Trailblazers

Sunniva Sorby – Polar Explorer; Founder, Hearts in the Ice

Fabien Schultz – Zoopharmacognosist; Alumnus, Fulbright Research Program

Daniel C. Taylor – Conservationist; Honorary Professor, Quantitative Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Guardians

Taegyu Choi – Veterinarian Conservationist; Founder, Project Moon Bear

Dr. Moses Pulei – Advocate; Founder, Staff of Hope; Professor of Theology, Whitworth University

Sonam Tobgay (Pictured middle) – Ecologist; Chief Forestry Officer, Royal Government of Bhutan

Champions

Aishwarya Sridhar – Filmmaker; First Indian Woman to win Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award

Anthony Giordano – Conservation scientist; Director, S.P.E.C.I.E.S.

George James Bey III – Maya Archaeologist; Chisholm Foundation Chair in Arts and Sciences, Millsaps College

Patricia Martin Morales – Mayan Artist; Educator and Advocate

Amber Sparks - Environmental Entrepreneur; Co-founder, Rigs-to-Reefs

Emily Hazelwood - Marine conservation biologist; Co-founder, Rigs-to-Reefs

Moriba Jah - Astrodynamicist; Associate professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin

Shawna Pandya - Astronaut and Physician; Director, IIAS’ Space Medicine Group