Brent Garry

Brent Garry is a geologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where he studies lava flows and volcanoes on Earth and compares them to similar features on the Moon and Mars. He earned degrees in geology from The College of William and Mary (B.S.), the University of Kentucky (M.S.), and the University at Buffalo (Ph.D.). He then held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum from 2006-2010, after which he worked at the Planetary Science Institute for two years, and then moved to NASA. From 2008-2011, as a member of NASA’s Desert RATS team, Brent lived in prototype space vehicles for up to two weeks at a time during simulated missions to the lunar surface and asteroids. Brent has conducted fieldwork in Iceland, Hawaii, New Mexico, Idaho, Oregon, and Belize; served as editor for the GSA special volume Analogs for Planetary Exploration; and was selected as a Participating Scientist on NASA’s Dawn and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) missions. Outside the office, Brent enjoys running and scuba diving.

Peter Bobrowsky

Peter Bobrowsky is a professional archaeologist and geologist with 40 years of experience working as a consultant, scholar, teacher and researcher across the globe. His academic achievements include almost 500 publications - 20 technical books such as the Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards, Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology and The Landslide Handbook - the latter written for the general public has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Japanese; induction as an International Fellow of the Explorers Club of New York and Fellow of the Geological Society of America. He is the recipient of numerous awards including most notably the Eugene Shoemaker Communications Award for Best Book (2009), the Edward B. Burwell Jr. Award for Engineering Geology (2011), the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) and the James Harrison Outstanding Achievement Award (2020).

Dr. Bobrowsky has a prominent history of international positions and appointments in particular 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.

A popular global public speaker for the past 25 years he remains a much sought after and well-liked lecturer for the Smithsonian since 2004. His multi-disciplinary background and extensive travel to over 110 countries contribute to his unique, informative and enthusiastic speaking style. A born extrovert, with an easy going manner, Peter strives to understand and explain the crucial links between a diverse and dynamically changing Earth and the evolution of changing societies through history.

He divides his time between travel adventures and home life near Sidney by the Sea on Vancouver Island.

Carola Stearns

Carola Stearns is a field geologist and geophysicist with over 40 years of experience enthusiastically sharing her fascination with the Earth and how it works.  She earned a Ph.D 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.  She has worked with archaeologists on both prehistoric and classical sites around the Mediterranean and in the southwest of the US.  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. 

Katryn Wiese

Katryn Wiese is a professor of geology, paleontology, and oceanography with 30 years of experience, including research, teaching, field explorations, and community outreach. She studied at Caltech, Oregon State University, and Stanford University and focused her early research experiences on volcanic processes (modern and historic) in Iceland, Hawaii, the seafloor around the Azores and the Galapágos Islands, and the tablelands of Eastern Australia. Since then, she has journeyed around the world as a scientist and field guide, gaining field expertise across North and South America, Antarctica, the Arctic, Australia, New Zealand, and islands across every ocean, including Palau, Tahiti, Fiji, and Svalbard. 

Katryn’s primary focus today is her award-winning teaching: engaging students of all ages and backgrounds in exploring the natural phenomena at work in the landscape, reading the stories in the rocks and the landforms, evaluating the impact of the Earth and its oceans on our climate, culture, and society, and evaluating the impacts human civilizations throughout history have made and continue to make on our planet. She shares that work with local and global audiences through her Earth Rocks! YouTube video channel, her library of open source earth science lessons and lab manuals, and the Story of Time and Life, a 4-floor exhibit of dinosaurs, fossils, and meteorites that she installed and curates at City College of San Francisco in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences. 

While she continues to collaborate with and support colleagues and exhibits at City College of San Francisco, she recently joined the faculty at the College of San Mateo, which is closer to her home on the edge of the San Francisco Bay. She is an avid hiker and kayaker and most at home outdoors exploring erupting volcanoes, glacially carved fjords, fossil-and-mineral-rich cliffs, and majestic mountains and coastlines that are off the beaten path.

Maya Wei-Haas

Maya Wei-Haas is an award-winning science reporter who writes about all things science with a particular affection for rocks and reactions. She works as a freelancer for a range of outlets, but before setting off on her own she was a staff writer for National Geographic for nearly five years and an assistant editor at Smithsonian digital news for nearly three years. 

Maya holds a BA in Geology from Smith College and a PhD in Earth science from The Ohio State University. She traveled the world in the name of science, scooping ice melt from the top of Antarctic glaciers, hauling up sediments from Svalbard lakes, and monitoring water chemistry in Alaskan rivers. This journey helped her realize that the part of science she loves most is communication. She made the jump to journalism as a fellow for the AAAS Mass Media program. Now she's working to bring these types of adventures and the science that surrounds us to the general public.

Her work was awarded American Geophysical Union’s David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism (2020) and the American Society of Civil Engineers Excellence in Journalism Award (2021). In addition to science news and features, she authored the solar system section of the National Geographic Stargazer’s Atlas. She is now working on a forthcoming children's book about the amazing things that rocks can reveal with Phaidon Press.

Allen Glazner

Allen Glazner is a geologist, educator and author with particular expertise in volcanoes, tectonics, and mountain building. He believes strongly that understanding the geologic underpinnings of the planet greatly enhances one’s enjoyment of the landscape and everything that lives on it. A native Southern Californian, Allen earned geology degrees from Pomona College and UCLA before embarking on a 38-year career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

While his research focus is on the American Southwest, Allen has field experience many other countries including Iceland, Alaska, the Caribbean, South Africa, Mexico, Australia, Chile, and Argentina. An award-winning teacher, he has led dozens of field trips for groups ranging from the general public to academic specialists, and has trained astronauts and National Park personnel in the field and classroom. In addition to over 150 academic papers, he has coauthored several books for the public including Geology Underfoot books on Death Valley, Yosemite National Park, and Southern California. 

Allen was a runner and now is an avid cyclist and hiker. He enjoys photography, especially landscape, aerial, and 3D-reconstructive. Reading, especially fiction, is one of his sedentary pursuits. See landscape photos and more at allenglazner.com.