Learn more about the speakers at our flagship expedition and fieldwork planning event.
Joshua Allison
Instagram: @exped_Medic
Josh is an expedition and wilderness medicine doctor based in London. Over the years he has gained field experience across the globe, where he provides medical support for teams heading into remote and austere environments, whether navigating 7,000m Andean mountains, American deserts or dense tropical jungles. Josh also spends much of his time training the future wilderness medical specialists as the medical lead for Unique Expeditions. When not in the wilderness, Josh works in a busy emergency department and spends his spare time rock climbing and cycling.
Join Josh on Saturday afternoon (Tropical forest expeditions workshop)
Hugh Anderson
Twitter: @hughfrancisanderson
Instagram: @hughfrancisanderson
Hugh is a writer and photojournalist specialising in adventure and the environment. He is a Contributing Editor for both Oceanographic Magazine and Sidetracked Magazine, the Adventure Correspondent for I-M Intelligent Magazine, and a regular contributor to National Geographic UK.
Hugh strives to discover pertinent and gripping stories to communicate to a global audience. His numerous features for Oceanographic explore a range of contemporary issues and stories from the oceans. His writing for National Geographic UK includes stories of redemption for victims of sexual violence as a weapon of war in the DRC, and the first expedition to free dive with and document sperm whales in arctic Norway.
Join Hugh on Saturday morning (Jan Mayen 2021)
Kate Baker
Twitter: @Baker_aquatic
Dr Kate Baker is a research fellow in the Centre for Water Systems at the University of Exeter. She is a physical geographer by training and now works with engineers, water companies, and the public to co-produce technology to create circular water systems and to help the public reduce their water usage. Kate is co-founder and director of the charity Agile Rabbit, producing public engagement events across the southwest of England and is a core team member of the Social Engagement Platform of the UN World Water Quality Alliance. She was a 2019 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Community Engagement Fellow. Kate has conducted field research in Brunei, India, and Norway.
Join Kate on Sunday morning (How to improve international field research + Human and social sciences workshop)
Oliver Beardon
Twitter: @SailBritainCP
Instagram: @sailbritain
Oliver is the founder of Sail Britain, an interdisciplinary arts, sailing and ocean research project. He has a particular interest in cross-disciplinary working in a research and expedition environment, and the collaborative social space of a sailing vessel. With Sail Britain, he has undertaken trips with focus ranging from ocean microplastics research to exploring the cultural heritage and identity of remote islands. Oliver holds a commercially endorsed Yachtmaster ticket and has sailed extensively around the UK, the Baltic, Norway and the Mediterranean but is especially drawn to the wild outlying fringes of Scotland. He has long experience leading groups of young people on expeditions, and is RYA Instructor.
Join Oliver on Saturday afternoon (Oceans and marine projects workshop)
James Borrell
Twitter: @James_Borrell
Instagram @james_borrell
Dr James Borrell is a conservation biologist with research interests ranging from tropical ecology and distribution modelling to evolutionary genomics. He has been involved with expeditions and fieldwork in a diverse range of environments, including Lapland, Botswana, Oman, Borneo, Peru, South Africa and Madagascar. James is currently a research fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, working on unusual and neglected tropical crops in the Ethiopian Highlands. James believes passionately in adventure with purpose, and the benefits of undergraduate expeditions and exploration for developing the next generation of pioneering conservationists. .
Join James on Sunday morning (Is there anything left to explore? + Biological and natural sciences workshop)
Paul Burgum
Twitter: @pburgum
Paul Burgum is a PhD student in psychology at Durham University. Paul initially developed an interest in endurance, examining his own limits during unsupported walks across Europe and numerous ultramarathons. This has led to published work on the effect of mood on endurance performance. Paul’s current project is exploring the now commonly used term of ‘resilience’ with polar expeditioners to better understand what allows people to not only survive but importantly flourish. Paul is also a passionate youth worker and the founder of BCT Aspire CIC where he shares his love of the outdoors with local children.
Join Paul on Saturday afternoon (Resilience in polar expeditioners)
Katie Burton
Twitter: @GeographicalMag
Instagram: @geographical_magazine
Katie is the editor of Geographical magazine. A lawyer by training, she gave it all up to pursue journalism and has never looked back. As well as commissioning and editing the stories that go into the magazine she writes many of them herself, covering a wide range of global issues from the lack of electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa to the impact of climate change on the oceans and the UK's North-South divide.
Join Katie on Sunday afternoon (Getting published workshop)
Luce Choules
Luce is a UK-based itinerant trans-disciplinary artist, operating from field centres in France and Spain, and working internationally. Her praxis monitors Earth systems, accelerated change and social movement to investigate material and immaterial forms of transformation and transportation. She makes collapsing and adaptive environments that test and signal our capacity to be agile. Luce has exhibited and performed widely through individual and group shows and events in the UK, Europe, Australia and USA. She is supported in her work and activities through a range of ecologic residencies and sociocultural commissions for public projects funded by arts councils, regional arts organisations, cultural institutions, foundations and environmental agencies. She founded and coordinates the itinerant artist network TSOEG.org
Join Luce on Sunday afternoon (Creative projects: Art, exhibitions and participation workshop)
Will Close-Ash
Twitter: @mountainenergy
Will runs Mountain Energy with his wife, Naomi. He started out like most people, taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award as a student and his love for the mountains grew from there. As a volunteer with the Air Cadets, he had the chance to run many UK and overseas expeditions and running his own mountaineering company was the next logical step. He has led groups on some of the classic alpine long distance treks including the tour of Mont Blanc and the walkers Haute Route. Will has climbed several alpine peaks up to AD and travelled through Peru, Bolivia, Lesotho, South Africa and Morocco. His highest personal summit to date was a dormant volcano in Bolivia called Lincancubur which sits at 5960m.
Join Will on Sunday morning (School and youth expeditions workshop) and afternoon (Presentation of YET Lifetime Achievement Award)
Susannah Cass
Instagram: @boatanist
Dr Susannah is a part-time Associate Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Science at the Open University; and a rowing coach, expedition leader, theatre manager and education researcher. Her academic interests span ecology, biodiversity, conservation, agriculture, citizen science and science education, and she has been a Chief Scientist/Senior Knowledge Leader on expeditions to the Peruvian Amazon, Iceland and Scotland with the British Exploring Society. A long-time devotee to Type 2 Fun, Susannah has also rowed the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, walked the GR20 with her 70-year-old dad, and cycled the coast of Brazil.
Join Susannah on Saturday afternoon (Tropical forest expeditions) and Sunday morning (School and youth expeditions workshop)
Rebecca Coles
Twitter: @allbutessential
Instagram: @allbutessentialtravel
Rebecca Coles works as a winter mountaineering and climbing Instructor, expedition leader and, more recently, in TV safety. She has lead expeditions on all seven continents and has climbed in all the major mountain ranges. Personal expeditions have taken her to 7000-plus-metre peaks and first ascents in the Himalaya and South Georgia, Antarctica. In 2019 she was part of an all-women’s team, Project Alpine Spirit, who climbed 56 of the Alpine 4000m peaks. She sits on the Alpine Club and Mount Everest Foundation screening expedition committee and has a PhD in glacial geomorphology. She is a Montane, Julbo and La Sportiva athlete, and Ellis Brigham, Cicerone and Protect Our Winters ambassador.
Join Rebecca on Saturday afternoon (Mountain and trekking expeditions workshop)
Alicia Colson
Dr Alicia Colson is an archaeologist and ethnohistorian who uses AI. She has collaborated with indigenous peoples from the outset of working for governments and NGOs, and conducted fieldwork in Canada, UK, US and Antigua. She has undertaken citizen science expeditions in Namibia and Iceland. She was a 2021 Wiley Digital Archive Research Fellow and built an ESRI StoryMap on the Ilhas de Santa Catarina, Brazil. She is a co-founder, with Briony Turner, of Exploration Revealed, the Scientific Exploration Society's digital hybrid publication. She’s the Commissioning Editor of the Log for the GB and Ireland Chapter, The Explorers Club.
Join Alicia on Sunday afternoon (Getting published workshop)
Eleanor Drinkwater
Twitter: @E_Drinkwater
Eleanor is an entomologist and conservationist who has recently completed a PhD on emergent personality in invertebrates. Eleanor is passionate about understanding invertebrate behaviour and developing an ethical framework for the sustainable use and collection of invertebrates and other animals. These interests have led her to work both in the UK and further afield in Peru, Australia, Honduras and French Guiana. Currently, Eleanor is working for an NGO on legal and illegal wildlife trade issues. Eleanor is also committed to science communication and has appeared on radio shows and podcasts including the Naked Scientists and Scientific American. She helped to co-found an entomophagy science festival group, and enjoys running bug-hunting and education events with community groups and schools.
Join Eleanor on Sunday morning (Biological and natural sciences workshop)
James Dyer
James is an adventurer, expedition leader, safety advisor and outdoor education practitioner. With a career spanning over 20 years, he has participated in and led expeditions all over the globe, covering all environments from the highest mountains, to the frozen arctic, spending time with indigenous peoples in the jungles of Borneo and the bush of Tanzania, climbing into the canopy of the Peruvian Amazon, canoeing rivers deep in Northern Canada and trekking across the deserts of the Middle East. As the Operation Manager at the British Exploring Society, he developed, designed and delivered educational youth development expeditions to remote and wilderness environments.
Join James on Saturday afternoon (Tropical forest expeditions workshop)
Catherine Edsell
Instagram: @cathadventure
Catherine Edsell is a naturalist and global expedition leader, combining her passion for travel and effective conservation through independent and collaborative expedition work in the most remote areas of the world. She has 20 years' experience working in all manner of terrains, often with her children in tow. She now designs conservation expeditions for women to assist in the mitigation of elephant/human conflict with rural communities in the Southwestern area of Namibia where desert-adapted elephants roam freely, opening up her world to those who wish to push their own mental and physical boundaries, and challenge themselves.
Join Catherine on Sunday afternoon (Shout outs: Mothers and daughters in Namibia)
Mark Edsell
Dr Mark Edsell is a consultant in anaesthesia and critical care medicine and has a longstanding interest in extreme environment medicine, with 20 years’ experience in expedition medicine and field research across marine, jungle and mountainous environments. He was part of the neurosciences team on the Caldwell Xtreme Everest Research Expedition in 2007 and research lead for the 2010 Xtreme Alps expedition. As an active member of the Birmingham Medical Research Expeditionary Society (BMRES) investigating exercise-induced pulmonary oedema at altitude, he has just published work on the environmental cost of medical fieldwork as part of an expedition to Sikkim.
Join Mark on Saturday afternoon (Mountain and trekking expeditions workshop) and Sunday morning (Medical fieldwork in Sikkim: the environmental impact + Expedition and wilderness medicine workshop)
Phil Emmerson
Dr Phil Emmerson is Managing Editor for the Society’s academic publications. This includes the RGS-IBG Book Series, our four international journals, and the blog, Geography Directions. He has experience writing for publication across a variety of outlets and media, as well as working with social media. Before joining the Society in 2019, Phil worked at the University of Birmingham.
Join Phil on Sunday afternoon (Getting published workshop)
Edwina fitzPatrick
Instagram: @nikandedwina
Dr Edwina fitzPatrick is a UK based artist. Her practice uses interactive fieldwork to explore what happens when 'grey' (urban), 'green' and 'blue' environments intersect. It focuses on how humans have and are, affecting the nature, culture, and ecology of a place. Edwina’s projects aim to reveal the complex, reciprocal and nuanced natures of habitats at both local and global scales. As such, her artworks often ponder the impact of moving living matter from one place to another. Edwina completed her AHRC funded practice-based PhD in collaboration with the UK Forestry Commission (now Forestry England).
Join Edwina on Sunday afternoon (Creative projects: Art, exhibitions and participation workshop)
Rob and Harriet Fraser
Instagram: @butnorain
Harriet and Rob collaborate through their practice somewhere-nowhere, bringing more than three decades of experience of writing, photography and research to their exploration of the nature and culture of place. They combine walking practice with field research and rigorous interviews to enquire into, and share, multiple elements that shape rural landscapes. They work alongside environmental scientists, land managers and farmers, and curate artful conversations in outdoor settings about the challenges of collective, positive change.
Join Rob and Harriet on Sunday afternoon (Creative projects: Art, exhibitions and participation workshop)
Sam Gandhi
Twitter: @thejollygeo
Instagram: @thejollygeo
LinkedIn: @thejollygeo
Sam is a Cambridge-based geographer working on environmental and geospatial projects locally and globally. He has taken a career break from Defra to pursue other endeavours freelancing as The Jolly Geographer – he recently returned from the remote and uninhabited sub-Antarctic Gough Island, working on an ecologically critical island restoration project with the RSPB. As The Jolly Geographer, Sam aims to raise the profile of geography as a tool for social (he hosts geography quizzes!) and professional good. He has recently worked with NGOs such as Blue Ventures, IUCN, and Wildlife Trust BCN, and previously worked as a Geospatial Intelligence Analyst at the MOD for five years. Sam is hoping to become a Chartered Geographer soon!
Join Sam on Sunday morning (GIS and field mapping workshop)
Daniel Grace
Instagram: @thewildernessmedic
Dr Daniel Grace is based in the Brecon Beacons and works as a portfolio GP, event, and expedition doctor. Daniel holds the International Diploma in Expedition and Wilderness Medicine, from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Daniel has provided medical cover at multiple UK-based, endurance sports events, the Kenya Impact Marathon, based in Kericho, Kenya, and in the Canadian Yukon, supporting young people on expeditions with the British Exploring Society. He is also proud to be the volunteer medical director for The Virtual Doctors, a UK-based NGO that offers remote telemedical advice to clinicians in rural clinics and hospitals in Zambia and Malawi.
Join Daniel on Saturday afternoon (Keeping healthy in the field) and Sunday morning (Expedition and wilderness medicine workshop)
Mark Griffiths
Twitter: @casesofyou
Dr Mark Griffiths is a political geographer based at Newcastle University. His work is split between two themes: on colonial power in Palestine at various sites such as checkpoints, bureaucratic mechanisms and house demolitions and is published in journals such as Political Geography, Antipode and EPD: Society and Space; on research ethics in the processes of knowledge production in the 'postcolonial' South and is published in journals such as Transactions of the IBG, Area and Biotropica.
Join Mark on Sunday morning (How to improve international field research + Human and social sciences workshop)
Stuart
Stuart grew up as an ex-pat in Saudi Arabia. He has hiked the Skeleton Coast solo, wandered the jungles of Borneo amongst the last nomadic Penan, and tracked big game through the Kalahari with the Ju/'hoansi. He has accumulated an eclectic array of qualifications and experience; he has managed an African game reserve, been the curator of the San Cultural History Museum in Botswana, organised remote healthcare logistics for NGO’s in South East Asia, trained anti-tiger poaching patrols in Malaysia, and acted as a researcher/fixer for the BBC. He is a qualified survival instructor, emergency medical technician, motor vehicle mechanic, Trimix diver, divemaster, powerboat skipper, expedition leader and swift water rescue technician.
Join Stuart on Saturday afternoon (Tropical forest expeditions workshop)
Laura Harrington
Laura Harrington is an artist, researcher and creative producer living and working in the North East of England, UK. Her work explores the complex relations between humans and particular landscapes, often in interdisciplinary research and collaborative ways. Situated between art, science and philosophy her practice of film-making, installation, drawing, fieldwork and listening seeks to create works that centre on an idea of upstream consciousness, an ethos for engaging with the world that draws on upland ecologies to think about various relations and connections. In 2014 she was affiliated with Durham University through a Leverhulme Artist Residency where she developed an interest in the field of geomorphology and peatland ecologies. She is a current practice-based PhD candidate with BxNU at Northumbria University and the field of physical geography.
Join Laura on Sunday afternoon (Creative projects: Art, exhibitions and participation workshop)
Harrison Hegarty
Twitter @RGS_IBGschools
Harri is the Education Officer for Resources at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). He has a BSc in geography from Loughborough University and completed his PGCE at St Anne’s College, Oxford. Having spent 10 years in the classroom as a teacher, he now works at the Society producing educational resources for the secondary school geography curriculum. His output ranges from free weekly downloads, in-depth school member resources, and project work from research expeditions. Harri also records the fortnightly Ask the geographer podcast series with leading academics, geographers, and explorers.
Join Harri on Sunday afternoon (Sound recording for radio and podcasts workshop)
Andreas Heide
Twitter: @barbaboat
Twitter: @andreas.b.heide
Andreas is a sailor, adventurer, and marine biologist from Norway. For the past decade, he has sailed extensively in the Arctic aboard his expedition yacht Barba, which he uses as a platform and tool to allow storytellers and researchers to document and communicate messages from the arctic.
A former military diver and expert in Arctic diving with marine mammals, Andreas has received global attention for his work using whales as ocean ambassadors, with coverage by the BBC, National Geographic UK, and CNN, among others. He has led sailing and research expeditions to Greenland, Jan Mayen, Svalbard, and has spent four winters aboard Barba documenting orcas in Arctic Norway.
Join Andreas on Saturday morning (Arctic sense) and afternoon (Polar and arctic environments workshop)
Christy Hehir
Twitter: @christyhehir
Christy is an environmental psychologist passionate about the role tourism can play in (re)connecting people to our planet. Now in the final year of her PhD at the University of Surrey, her research collaborates with leading tour operators and international wildlife charities to identify the types of experiences/activities that emotionally (re)connect tourists with the environments they visit, and pinpoints triggers in travel that inspire tourists’ philanthropic behaviour towards conservation. Prior to academia, Christy had over 10 years’ travel industry experience across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Her polar adventures ignited when she travelled to Antarctica with Students on Ice, having been elected as the UK’s student representative of International Polar Year.
Join Christy on Saturday afternoon (Responsible travel during a climate emergency + Travels with purpose workshop)
Charlie Jaques
Charlie (or CJ as he is known) is a true wandering spirit, with 12 fully stamped passports and counting. He has hitched around South America and travelled the length and breadth of the USA. He then spent 15 years driving quite literally to the ends of the earth on pretty much every continent as an expedition leader for Dragoman. A natural linguist, he speaks six languages (German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Arabic). He is also a qualified commercial yacht skipper with various trans-Atlantic crossings under his belt. Now based in the UK, he divides his time between driver-guiding and training journalists and NGO’s before they head out to more hostile environments.
Meet Charlie on Saturday afternoon (Desert and vehicle journeys) and Sunday morning (Route planning)
Scotty Johnson
Twitter: @scottyexplore
Instagram: @scottyexplore
Scotty is a behavioural coach, speaker and expedition guide. He helps people to develop greater insights, increased awareness, deeper connections, and the courage to make a positive difference in the world. He works with business leaders, entrepreneurs and a variety of organisations to create a more purposeful future. Scotty is the founder of Explore What Matters - a global community of educational, well being and leadership specialists who run profound learning experiences inspired by outdoor experiences and journeys.
Join Scotty on Saturday afternoon (Travels with purpose workshop)
Stephen Jones
Twitter: @AntarcticSteve
Steve worked in finance in London for a few years before becoming an expedition leader and country director for Raleigh International. He went on be the base manager of the largest non-governmental operation in Antarctica for Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions LLC (ALE). He has hard-won leadership experience in high-risk environments and is an expert on expedition planning, safety management, and polar expeditions. As Expeditions Manager for ALE, he works with expeditions to Antarctica from first inquiry to departure. He also works as a speaker and advises on safety management and crisis management to projects around the world. He is an expeditions and fieldwork council member of the Society. He has expedition and fieldwork experience from Alaska to Zimbabwe via both Poles and loves sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm with others.
Join Steve on Saturday morning (Expedition planning: the keys to success)
Lucie Machin
Instagram: @lucemachin
Lucie Machin is a conservation biologist and photographer, with expertise in the marine environment. She has travelled extensively and has carried out fieldwork in some of the world’s remotest places, including Ascension Island, New Zealand’s offshore islands, Greenland and the United Kingdom. Since completing her MSc in Conservation and Biodiversity at the University of Exeter, she has worked as a researcher in marine conservation and a trip leader with Sail Britain. She has a particular interest in community-based conservation, ecosystem restoration, sustainable fishing practices and climate change. She is now pursuing a career in environmental journalism and film- making.
Join Lucie on Saturday afternoon (Oceans and marine projects workshop)
Niall McCann
Twitter: @NiallPMcCann
Niall has conducted remote-area biological research all over the world. Specialising in endangered species research, he graduated with a PhD in Conservation Biology from Cardiff University in 2015. Niall's adventures have been covered in the media for many years. He presented the award-winning documentary Lost in the Amazon, and three seasons of the multi award-winning Biggest and Baddest. Niall was featured in Sir David Attenborough’s flagship BBC1 series A Perfect Planet. Tired of the seeming-futility of endangered species research, Niall decided to dedicate his career to stopping the destruction of our natural heritage. Since 2012 Niall has worked on the front line of conservation in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Join Niall on Saturday morning (Protecting the planet: tackling the threats of climate change, biodiversity loss and new infectious diseases)
Alex McMaster
Instagram: @alexander_mcmaster
Alex is a freelance journalist, ecologist and diver. He writes for the Irish Times on topics of ecology and climate change, drawing attention to the entanglement of cultures with landscape. Alex is a co-director at Kosamare, a marine conservation NGO in the Ionian Islands. His work is focused on seagrass restoration and community engagement, using scuba diving as a means to study and raise awareness of the undersea world. In 2018 he travelled from Cairo to Cape Town by tandem bicycle, delivering training at universities with an innovative medical device for eye and ear disease. During the eight-month expedition, he and friend Merlin Hetherington were forced to change their mode of transport, walking for one month across the Maasai Steppe and finishing their journey on elliptigo bicycles. His expeditions by bike and sail have taken him throughout Europe, the Southern Ocean and the Arctic.
Julian Martin
Julian is Grants Officer at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). He has an MSci in geology from Imperial College London and PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London. His research studying Patagonian glaciers used geomorphological mapping, landform dating and computer modelling to reconstruct and better understand past glacier change. Julian now oversees the Society’s grants programme which supports upwards of 60 fieldwork projects each year, undertaken by independent travelers, students, early career researchers and teachers, across six continents.
Join Julian on Sunday morning (Earth and environmental sciences workshop) and afternoon (How to submit a successful grant application)
Freija Mendrik
Twitter: @FreijaMendrik
Instagram: @freija.marine
Freija Mendrik is PhD candidate at the Energy and Environment Institute, University of Hull investigating microplastic transport and ecological risk in aquatic environments, focusses on the Mekong River and South China Sea in Cambodia and Vietnam. She has over six years of experience working in tropical marine locations as a marine scientist, from Puerto Rico to the Maldives. However her passion for exploration began in 2013 when she joined the Canyons to Craters British Exploring Society scientific expedition in Namibia. Freija is also a National Geographic Explorer as part of the River of Plastic project applying a physical and social approach to understand plastic waste transport through the Mekong from Laos to Vietnam.
Join Freija on Saturday afternoon (Oceans and marine projects workshop)
Kevin Merrey
Instagram: @skyrise_productions
Kevin Merrey is an adventure filmmaker and photographer whose work has taken him around the world to various continents. He shoots and produces adventure films ranging from stories of record breaking adventurers and explorers to branded content for outdoors brands. Kevin specialises in directing fast paced story led adventure content and flying drones in unlikely places, often dangerous expeditions.
Join Kevin on Sunday afternoon (Film and video: visual storytelling workshop)
Chris Minty
Instagram: @secureforests
Chris is Conservation Director of Secure Forests CIC that builds forest and land security programs using the latest technologies, training and engaging communities, so that forests have a sustainable and secure future. Following service in the UK Armed Forces, Chris left to pursue a career in science. He the resident manager at Las Cuevas Research Station in the Chiquibul Forest, Cayo Belize for London’s Natural History Museum for eight years. He has supported literally hundreds of science projects ranging from soil surveys and student study groups to the re-introduction of harpy eagles into the wild. Chris now maintains close links with Rainforest Concern leading private trips to the Chiquibul Forest and other rainforest facilitating science and student expeditions whenever he can. He is a committee member of the UK Belize Association.
Join Chris on Saturday morning (Acoustic sensors in tropical forests, Belize)
Reza Pakravan
Twitter: @RezaPakravan
Reza Pakravan is a filmmaker, explorer and writer. With the current hit series on Amazon Prime The World's Most Dangerous Borders, his films have taken audiences to some of the most remote corners of the world. He has presented and produced prime time programmes for networks such as the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic, Netflix and Fox. He is a featured contributor to The Outdoor Journal and Travel Africa magazine.
Join Reza on Sunday afternoon (Film and video: visual storytelling workshop)
Surshti Patel
Twitter: @surshtipatel
Surshti Patel is a technical specialist at the Zoological Society of London. She is an interdisciplinary conservation practitioner, with eight years’ experience working with NGOs, business, academia, and scientists. Surshti works on developing and applying socio-ecological approaches to a range of environmental health issues, with a strong interest in pro-environmental behaviour and nature benefits at individual and societal levels. Surshti aspires to understand and leverage achievable, fairer, and equitable decision making and action, for shared human and environmental well-being. She has worked in the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Cameroon, Mozambique, and the UK.
Join Surshti on Sunday morning (How to improve international field research + Human and social sciences workshop)
Suresh Paul
Twitter: @EqualAdventure
Suresh Paul, founder and director of Equal Adventure, is an industrial design graduate with extensive knowledge of disability, social inclusion, coaching and sports science. With over ten years of experience in inclusive design, he has run research and development projects in the UK and abroad which have combined a range of methodologies and user involvement strategies to produce sports equipment for people with a wide range of impairments. His current research into inclusive adventure considers gaining consent and integrating therapy with community participation. He currently lectures in design, sports engineering and outdoor studies on a range of undergraduate courses across the UK, and mentors graduates during their internships at Equal Adventure. He is a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at Harper Adams University supporting inclusive practices in farming.
Join Suresh on Saturday afternoon (Ingenious expedition launch: delivering inclusive community expeditions)
Richard Phillips
Richard Phillips is Professor of Human Geography at Sheffield University, where he teaches social and cultural geography and leads field classes, international and local. Beginning with his first book, a study of geographical imagination and adventure fiction titled Mapping Men and Empire: A Geography of Adventure, Richard’s research and teaching have revolved around curiosity and creativity, adventure and exploration. Richard brings a distinctively playful, critical, approach to the question of what it means to be an explorer of the world today. This is reflected in recent books including Georges Perec’s Geographies (2019) and in Richard’s co-authored text book on fieldwork, Fieldwork for Human Geography (2012; with a second edition forthcoming).
Join Richard on Saturday morning (What it means to be an explorer in the 21st century?)
Simon Pinfield
Simon is a manager in the Education Department at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). He oversees the production of the Society’s teaching and learning resources (working with our writer, Harri Hegarty). This includes a wide range of online materials and our popular Ask the Geographer podcast series. Simon organises some of our CPD events for teachers, leads external resources projects and manages some external partnerships, including our education work with Esri UK. He is on the education committee at GeolSoc (GSL), RMetS and BSG. Simon previously worked as a senior teacher and also led a geography department and humanities faculty. He has been a site geologist and environmental consultant as well.
Join Simon on Sunday afternoon (School and youth expeditions workshop)
Richard Pyshorn
Instagram: @secureforests
Richard is the founder of Secure Forests CIC that builds forest and land security programs using the latest technologies, training and engaging communities, so that forests have a sustainable and secure future. Richard is a successful entrepreneur and businessmen, who also runs a UK based survival and resilience training company, Survival Wisdom, established over 10 years. His love for the rainforest and conservation came from operating in some of the worlds remotest jungles, during his military career.
Meet Richard on Saturday morning (Acoustic sensors in tropical forests, Belize)
Kate Rawles
Twitter: @CarbonCycleKate
Kate is passionate about using adventurous journeys to raise awareness and inspire action on our most urgent environmental challenges. Her most recent Adventure Plus journey involved building a bamboo bike and cycling it the length of South America - exploring biodiversity loss, why it matters and what can be done. A former university lecturer in environmental ethics, then outdoor studies, Kate now works fully freelance. Her book The Carbon Cycle, based on a long ride in the Rockies that focussed on climate change, was shortlisted for the Banff Mountain Festival Adventure Travel book award 2012. She’s currently working on The Life Cycle, to be published by Icon Books in Spring 2023. Kate also runs occasional outdoor philosophy courses, using the power of wild places to explore our relationship with nature and inspire more sustainable ways of living and working. She lives in Cumbria with her partner, Chris, and rescue dog, Carter, and is a keen sea kayaker, hill-walker and book-worm as well as a cyclist.
Spike Reid
Instagram: @SpikeReid
Spike was inspired to undertake expeditions while growing up on the edge of Dartmoor, where he spent large amounts of time with scouts, cadets and other friends. Since then he has completed numerous expeditions in a wide variety of countries, ranging from first ascents in Tajikistan and Siberia, training young people in the Norwegian Arctic and the jungle of Borneo, and trekking in Bhutan and Afghanistan. In 2008 Spike circumnavigated the world along the line of 50°N after winning the RGS-IBG Land Rover Bursary. Spike is particularly keen on the rapidly-growing sport of stand-up paddleboarding, having completed the first descent of the River Ganges by this means Spike is an international mountain leader, photographer and experienced in diving, climbing, fell-running and sailing.
Join Spike on Saturday afternoon (Mountain and trekking expeditions workshop)
Nina Seale
Twitter: @hirundonova
Instagram: @hereunderandover
Nina Seale is a science communicator specialising in wildlife conservation. With a Zoology degree from the University of Edinburgh, she originally trained as a safari guide in South Africa but moved back to the UK to pursue a career in international wildlife conservation. She has now more than five years of experience and has worked with World Land Trust, Big Canopy Campout, Conservation Optimism, Buglife, and Synchronicity Earth. Using social media to highlight the stories of conservationists is a particular passion of hers, but she also has experience in journalism, marketing, website management, and video production.
Meet Nina on Sunday afternoon (Top tips for social media)
Richard Scrase
Twitter: @rscrase
LinkedIn: @scrase
Richard is a video and radio producer. Currently he is making a programme about restoring sea grass meadows. Whether you want to record your journey from the back of a horse, underwater, or in a hot-air balloon, he can suggest what equipment to use and what to do with your recordings once you get home. Richard is Head of Online Communication at Understanding Animal Research where he makes videos, runs websites and social media.
Join Richard on Sunday afternoon (Sound recording for radio and podcasts)
Catherine Souch
Twitter: @RGS_IBGhe
Dr Catherine Souch is Head of Research and Higher Education at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Catherine has a BA (Hons) from University of Cambridge and an MSc and PhD in Geography from the University of British Columbia. Before returning to the UK, she was Associate Dean and Professor of Geography at Indiana University Indianapolis. Catherine's own research focuses on records of environmental change from lake and wetland sediments. In her role at the Society, she oversees the grants programme along with a range of other activities related to higher education and research.
Join Catherine on Sunday morning (Earth and environmental sciences workshop)
Joe Smith
Twitter: @citizenjoesmith
Joe Smith is Director of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Prior to this he was Professor of Environment and Society and Head of Geography at the Open University. His academic work has focused on environmental communication, history, policy and politics. Joe has put together numerous seminars for environment specialists and senior media decision-makers, mostly from the BBC, since the mid-1990s. Joe was co-founder of the Mediating Change group which supports and reflects upon new cultural work on climate change, and has included the commissioning of a body of artist’s residencies. Joe holds a BA in Social and Political Sciences and a PhD in Geography from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He is also a Director of Smith of Derby Ltd., a 160-year-old public clock making company that continues to design and make new commissions all over the world, and looks after 4500 sites across the UK.
Join Joe on Saturday morning (Welcome)
Thomas Starnes
Twitter: @bio_carta
Thom is Key Biodiversity Areas Programme Officer with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Cambridge. Previously Senior GIS Analyst with the RSPB, his current role involves managing projects which identify areas contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity through the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) Programme. Thom is a Chartered Member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, Chair of the Cambridge Conservation GIS Group, a member of the BCRA Cave Surveying Group, Cave Biology Group and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). Thom has coordinated GIS, field mapping and data management for several field research expeditions including to the forests of Madagascar, the Alpine caves of Austria and the deserts and mountains of Oman.
Join Thom on Sunday morning (Key Biodiversity Areas and how field projects can contribute valuable data towards recognising and monitoring places of global significance for biodiversity conservation + GIS and field mapping workshop)
Sarah Tingey
Sarah Tingey is a PhD student in Glaciology at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol. Prior to her PhD, Sarah spent nine years working in the scuba diving industry as a divemaster and marine conservation officer travelling to remote areas in Egypt and Honduras. However, Sarah now focusses her research on far colder regions! Whilst a PhD, student Sarah has been on fieldwork expeditions to Patagonia, Chile (2017) and led expeditions to Iceland (2016) and the Indian Himalayas (2017, 2018). Sarah and her colleagues at Bristol Glaciology Centre and JNU Delhi are investigating the impacts of melting ice within the Himalayas. Sarah’s main focus is using this knowledge on how the region is changing to develop novel organic farming methods for the developing world.
Join Sarah on Saturday morning (Himalayan fieldwork in the time of COVID) and afternoon (Mountain and trekking expeditions workshop)
Tim Taylor
Instagram: timtaylor_photography
Tim Taylor is a fine art photographer and adventurer, inspired by the beauty of extreme environments and the wild places of our planet. His passion lies in exploring and photographing the remote, otherworldly regions of our planet in search of beauty, and of our human place within the universe. Using the medium of photography, both as an artistic instrument and scientific tool, he also aims to contribute to the understanding of our environment by collaborating with scientists, using photographic techniques to support scientific research. Recent expeditions have taken him from the 8000-metre peaks of the Himalaya, to the remote glaciers of Northern Pakistan, and to the wilds of Patagonia and Alaska. He has recently returned from a successful summit of Denali – the highest mountain in North America.
Join Tim on Sunday afternoon (Creative projects: art, exhibitions and participation workshop)
Helen Turton
Twitter: @newlandexpeditions
Helen has visited both the North and South Poles and crossed Greenland on skis on several occasions, including skiing the full distance to the South Pole. A winter mountain leader and nordic ski instructor, she has led more than 80 expeditions with young people and adult groups abroad, especially in the polar regions, and has worked extensively in the outdoor and environmental education industry. Helen jointly manages Newland Expeditions - a Norwegian company that specialises in cross country ski polar expeditions and training.
Join Helen on Saturday afternoon (Polar and arctic environments workshop)
Jemma Wadham
Professor Jemma Wadham is one of the world's leading glaciologists, best known as a pioneer in the field of understanding glacier-hosted life and the impacts of glaciers on our global carbon cycle. She works at the University of Bristol, UK and UiT The Arctic University of Norway has led more than twenty-five expeditions to glaciers around the world. These have taken her to most of the icy corners of our Earth, including glaciers in Greenland, Antarctica, Svalbard, Chilean Patagonia, the Peruvian Andes and the Himalaya. She written over 100 academic journal articles, one academic book and have recently finished her first book for a wide audience - Ice Rivers.
Join Jemma on Sunday morning (Why fieldwork matters: a passion for glaciers)
Nigel Winser
Twitter: @nigelwinser
Nigel Winser has had a career directing geographical field research in Africa, the Middle East and Asia to support conservation and sustainable development priorities. He was Deputy Director of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), responsible for developing and managing the Society’s field surveys including the Oman Wahiba Sands Programme, the Belalong Rainforest survey in Brunei and the Shoals of Capricorn Programme in the Indian Ocean. In 2005 Nigel joined Earthwatch as its Executive Director, heading its European ‘citizen science’ programmes. This included the HSBC Climate Partnership and working with the Oman Government to establish their National Field Research Centre for Environmental Conservation.
Join Nigel on Saturday and Sunday (Explore advice desks)
Shane Winser
Twitter: @ShaneWinser
Shane Winser is the expeditions and fieldwork advisor for the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) where she heads Geography Outdoors: the centre supporting field research, exploration and outdoor learning. She is a zoology graduate with a postgraduate diploma in Information Science. Shane is the chair of BSI’s technical panel for BS 8848: the British Standard that specifies operational requirements for organisers of a wide variety of ventures. These include adventurous and educational activities abroad including university and academic fieldwork, gap year experiences, adventure holidays, charity challenges and research expeditions.
Join Shane on Saturday morning (Tribute to Shara Dillon and Jessi Tucker) and Sunday afternoon (Closing address: Your priorities tomorrow)
Jason Wragg
Instagram: uclanoutdoors
Jason Wragg is the course leader for the BA (Hons) Outdoor Adventure Leadership at the University of Central Lancashire and is undertaking a PhD in Adventure Travel. Jason initially developed an interest in expeditions as a cultural phenomenon and transformational experiences through travel, utilising ethnographic and auto ethnographic methods for academic research into the lived experience. Jason’s current project is investigating the phenomena of adventure travel by motorcycle and the intersectionality of identity with concepts of tourism, adventure, and pilgrimage. Fieldwork has included riding 50cc Monkey bikes across Morocco. Jason has been actively involved in youth projects and been involved in several youth expeditions