Dr. Martin Nweeia, is the world’s leading expert on the narwhal tusk and tooth organ system. Martin is a National Foundation Scientist and has led over 20 high Arctic expeditions, and carried 15 Explorers Flags to study the elusive narwhal. Holding doctorate degrees in dental medicine and surgery, Martin serves on the faculties of the Harvard and Case Western Reserve Universities Schools of Dental Medicine, and is a researcher at the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Smithsonian Institution. Martin was awarded two fellowships from the Smithsonian, one in physical anthropology, and one in vertebrate zoology.

His work has been featured in The New York Times, NPR’s Pulse of the Planet, A Beautiful World, Morning Edition, Earth Wise, and documentaries from National Geographic, Decouverte (French Discovery), and BBC including Natural Curiosities with Sir David Attenborough. Dr. Nweeia was awarded a CINE Golden Eagle for the NGS Wild Chronicles’ story on the narwhal, The William Mills Prize for his book Narwhal: Revealing An Arctic Legend and The Lowell Thomas Award for Arctic Research. His 2020 scientific publications were featured in Nature, PNAS and two Smithsonian books. Martin was just named Global Fellow of the Polar Institute at the Wilson Center for Scholars.

Dr. Michael J. Manyak is an explorer, author, urologist, and corporate medical executive. At The Explorers Club, Dr. Manyak MED’ 92 has chaired the Expeditions Committee for 10 years, the Science Advisory Board, has sponsored over 160 new members, and has served on The Explorers Club Board of Directors from 1996-2006. He is an Associate Editor of The Explorers Journal where his column on Expedition Medicine appears. Dr. Manyak received the prestigious Sweeney Medal in 2004 from The Explorers Club.  Dr. Manyak has led a scientific expedition to the Ndoki rain forest in the Congo Basin in a collaborative effort with the World Wildlife Fund, has dived the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha in search of artifacts, was the ship physician on the icebreaker MV Polar Star for an Antarctic expedition with Students On Ice, and was the medical director for the RMS Titanic salvage expedition where he dove to the Titanic wreck site in the Russian MIR submersible.  In recent years, Dr. Manyak was the medical officer on an expedition to the deepest canyon in the world in Peru, on the first scientific dive in Mongolia in Asia’s second largest lake, on an expedition to evaluate a new spectacular finding of early human footprints in Tanzania that is now a World Heritage site, did a site visit to the remote Amazon Yasuni Reserve, and rode camels in the Gobi Desert observing the newly discovered, very highly endangered wild camel.

From Antarctica to the Arctic, Susan R. Eaton explores the world’s oceans in the snorkel zone, studying the intersection between geology, glaciology, plate tectonics, oceanography, climate and life. During the past decade, Susan has participated—as a geoscientist, journalist and polar snorkeler—in eight science-based polar expeditions to Antarctica, South Georgia, the Falkland Islands, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Svalbard and Iceland.

In 2018, Ocean Geographic named Susan one of the “Ocean’s Best” 18 most influential women leaders in ocean conservation. In 2021, Susan was named to The Explorers Club’s inaugural Explorers 50 Class, and in 2020, she was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame.

Susan is a Fellow International of the Explorers Club and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (the ‘RCGS’). In 2015, the RCGS named Susan one of Canada’s top 100 modern-day explorers and trail blazers. A year later, the RCGS named her one of Canada’s greatest 25 women explorers.

Susan is also registered with the Northwest Territories Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists, Susan is a Professional Geoscientist in the NWT and Nunavut.