Already a Club Member? First Time Logging-In? Please enter your email on file with the Membership Dept.
Your Member email was verified. Check your mailbox. Your password setup link was sent.
Your email address is not assigned to any Member.
Your web account is not active anymore.
Want to reset your password? Enter your e-mail assigned to your Membership.
Want to set up your password? Enter your new password below.
Your password was set. Log into your account using your email and your new password.
Since 1914, The Explorers Club has recognized the world’s greatest explorers with exploration’s highest honors.
Greely, Amundsen, Nansen — Piccard, Armstrong, Heyerdahl — Goodall, Leakey, Hillary & Norgay — Roosevelt, Sullivan, Walsh — the history of this Club is written in the legacy of the giants whom we celebrate.
We are proud to announce this newest class of awardees, formally honor their place in the history of human exploration, and celebrate them at our 121st Annual Dinner – April 26, 2025.
Biruté Mary Galdikas, Ph.D. is the world’s foremost authority on orangutans and is an internationally recognized scientist, conservationist, and educator. She is the President and Founder of Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), Full Professor at Simon Fraser University, and Professor Extraordinaire at Indonesia’s Universitas Nasional. For over half a century, Biruté has dedicated her life to promoting the protection of orangutans and their rainforest home. Her work has inspired generations of conservationists around the world and has brought peace to thousands of animals and people in the vicinity of her work and beyond.
Alex Wallace has been deeply involved in both club governance and exploration since his election to membership in 2001. A participant on four Explorers Club Flag Expeditions, Alex has also served the Club in a number of leadership positions including Chair of the Atlanta chapter, Co-Chair World Oceans Week at The Explorers Club, Vice President for Chapters, Vice President for Membership, and two terms as an elected Director. Alex additionally spearheaded efforts to create a Club data management and accounting system, and was instrumental in developing the Famous Firsts Annual Fund, a stable repetitive source of revenue to support Club operations, programs, and outreach.
In 2024, Chief Scientists Javier Sellanes, Ph.D. and Erin Easton, Ph.D., with the Schmidt Ocean Institute, discovered over 150 new species among underwater mountains, or seamounts, which play an integral role in oceanic processes and connectivity. Led by Javier and Erin, an international team examined understudied southeast Pacific seamounts, where only a few summits have been studied previously. Many of the dives took place in the world’s third largest fully protected marine area, the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park, a park roughly the size of Italy. ROV dives assisted scientists to create a complete picture of seamount biodiversity from the bottom of the mountain to the top. All of the data collected will contribute to Chile’s effort to establish a high-seas marine protected area along the Nazca and Salas y Gómez ridges.
Erin E. Easton, Ph.D. is the Director of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Marine Ecosystems Institute, as well as an adjunct researcher for the Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands at the Universidad Católica del Norte. Her research focuses on the exploration of understudied oceanic regions and their benthic habitats.
Javier Sellanes, Ph.D. is a marine biology professor at Universidad Católica del Norte, and an Associate Researcher at the Center for Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands. His research mainly focuses on deep-sea benthic ecology and the taxonomy of mollusks.
Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, Ph.D., a Peruvian chemical biologist of Andean-Amazonian heritage, bridges cutting-edge science and indigenous knowledge to protect Amazonian biodiversity, inspired by her grandmother’s wisdom as a healer. Rosa serves as the International Ashaninka Ambassador and was included in the BBC’s “100 Women 2024” list. Rosa was also named to the EC50 Class of 2024. As the founder of Amazon Research Int (ARI), she partners with native communities to uncover the rainforest’s untapped biodiversity and advocates for global conservation through science, the Rights of Nature, and storytelling. Her groundbreaking achievements include pioneering microbial exploration of the Amazonian Boiling River and conducting the first chemical analysis of Amazonian stingless bees and medicinal honey in Peru.
Dale T. Andersen, PhD, a senior scientist at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute, has spent nearly five decades exploring Earth’s most extreme environments. A pioneer in scientific diving in Antarctica’s perennially ice-covered lakes, Andersen’s research focuses on microbial ecosystems in extreme settings, with studies in both Antarctica and the Arctic. His discoveries, including large, modern conical stromatolites in Lake Untersee, provide key insights into life on early Earth and serve as analogs for potential life on Mars and icy moons like Europa. Andersen’s work continues to inspire exploration, advancing public understanding of planetary science and the resilience of life.
E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are Academy® Award-winning filmmakers and the directors/producers of “Free Solo.” Together, they run LITTLE MONSTER FILMS, a full-service production company focused on documentary and scripted projects, currently overseeing a development slate of more than a dozen projects for various networks and streamers. They are in post-production on two upcoming documentary features for National Geographic Documentary Films. Their first scripted feature, “Nyad”, about Diana Nyad’s 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida, began streaming on Netflix in the fall of 2023 and garnered Academy® Award nominations for both stars, Annette Bening and Jodie Foster. Other film projects include “The Rescue,” “Wild Life,” and “Return to Space,” and the series “Edge of the Unknown With Jimmy Chin” and “Photographer.” Chin is also a National Geographic photographer and professional mountain athlete who has led and documented cutting-edge expeditions around the world for over 20 years. Vasarhelyi and Chin split their time between New York City and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with their daughter, Marina, and son, James.
Frederik Paulsen, Ph.D., is a renowned businessman, academic, and philanthropist. A passionate explorer, Dr. Paulsen is one of the few to have travelled to all eight of the Earth’s poles. He has also completed two circumnavigations of Antarctica with groups of scientists conducting studies of ice, air, sea, flora and fauna. He has descended more than 14,000 feet in a submersible, taking samples at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole, and he also completed the first crossing of the Bering Strait from America to Russia in an ultralight aircraft. Based in Switzerland, Dr. Paulsen serves as Chairman Emeritus of Ferring Pharmaceuticals, a privately owned, research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group committed to building families and helping people live better lives.
