Splendors of Australia and New Zealand

Wildlife biologist Martin Cohen was born in Melbourne, a typical Aussie boy who played cricket in the summer and Australian Rules football in the winter. His love of exploring natural areas and looking for wildlife led to frogs, lizards, and snakes being regularly brought home, much to his parent's dismay. Martin completed his degrees in biological sciences and zoology, and earned his PhD at James Cook University, studying the cane toad of northern Australia.

During more than 25 years as a field-based tropical biologist, Martin has led numerous wildlife surveys and monitoring programs throughout Australia and Southeast Asia, and worked closely with community conservation groups. He has assisted on several wildlife documentaries and served as a senior researcher and field director for the BBC Natural History Unit, where he helped produce the “Wild Australasia” series.

In 2005, Martin founded Wild about Australia, an education and interpretation business that seeks to impart knowledge about the natural world through a variety of media, including television, eco-tourism, and wildlife field guides. As a naturalist on small expedition ships, he has traveled to tropical regions from Asia to Central America as well as Antarctica. He feels very fortunate to be able to do what he loves for a living, working within a talented, creative team and meeting interesting and enthusiastic guests.

Dr. Steven H. Williams is a planetary geologist and an expert in solar system science. He has conducted fieldwork in numerous locations from the American Southwest to Antarctica, and has considerable experience in Mars analog laboratory work. During his 15 years at Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (NASM), Steven held a number of posts, including Chair of the Education department. He created, managed, and delivered a wide variety of programs, hosted live Planetarium shows, helped create several award-winning educational videos, and contributed significantly to the design and content of museum’s new Exploring the Planets gallery. Steven is particularly skilled in designing and delivering educational programs that make complex scientific topics understandable to any audience. 

While at NASM, Steven was recruited by NASA to serve a two-year detail assignment at NASA Headquarters, where he created and delivered a number of outreach programs and products for launches, landings, science conferences, and other events.  He created the database for NASA’s SPACE365 app, which links space exploration milestones with their historical setting, as well as the definitive Mars exploration “batting average” spreadsheet, which showcases just how difficult Mars exploration has been. 

Peter Bobrowsky is an archaeologist and engineering geologist with a 40-year career working as a scholar, teacher, researcher, and consultant across the globe. His academic achievements include almost 500 publications, including 20 technical books such as the Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards; Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology; and The Landslide Handbook, which was  translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Japanese. He is an international fellow of the Explorers Club of New York and a fellow of the Geological Society of America, and has received numerous awards—most notably the Edward B. Burwell Jr. Award for Engineering Geology, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and the James Harrison Outstanding Achievement Award.

Among his many prominent international positions, Peter served as secretary general of the International Union of Geological Sciences, an NGO representing some 1 million earth scientists around the world; president of the Canadian Quaternary Association; president of the Geological Association of Canada; and president of the International Consortium on Landslides.

His multi-disciplinary background and extensive travel to more than 120 countries have made Peter a popular lecturer for the Smithsonian since 2004. A born extrovert with an easy-going manner, he strives to understand and explain the crucial links between a diverse and dynamic Earth and the evolution of changing societies through history.

He divides his time between travel adventures and home life on Vancouver Island.

Carola Stearns is a field geologist and geophysicist with more than 40 years of experience enthusiastically sharing her fascination with the Earth and how it works. She earned a PhD at the University of Michigan, has worked in exploration for major oil companies, taught at universities, and maintains a research affiliation with the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan. Carola has worked with archaeologists on both prehistoric and classical sites around the Mediterranean and in the southwestern U.S. Her diverse research interests include tectonics as well as climatic geomorphology, especially as it relates to human history. She has lectured as a park ranger at the Grand Canyon, on trips for the UM Alumni Association, and in Ann Arbor training docents for the botanical gardens, arboretum and the public school’s environmental education program. Currently she works part-time as an interpretive guide in Santa Fe. 

Wayne Ranney is a geologist, writer and lecturer, and a veteran of expedition travel, having worked on all seven continents and visited more than 90 countries. Wayne is a two-time recipient of the “Geosciences in the Media Award” (from the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists) and has received other national and regional honors for his writing, lectures, and guiding skills. He has also authored many award-winning books and articles and was elected to the Explorers Club. His travels have taken him to the Mediterranean; South America (Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and the Amazon); Australia and New Zealand; the polar regions (Antarctica, Iceland, and Greenland); and desert landscapes in Africa, Asia, and the American Southwest.

With a lifelong interest in the earth sciences, Wayne specializes in making the fascinating story of our planet come alive for fellow travelers in an easy-going and informal style. He has led trips for Smithsonian Journeys since 1995. He is a retired professor of geology who lives in Flagstaff, Arizona near his beloved Grand Canyon. He enjoys foreign languages, hiking, river running, photography, conversation, and anything that allows him to get outdoors to experience the varied and colorful landscapes of our beautiful planet.