Geoffrey Cox

Prior to moving to the central North Island town of Rotorua in 1999, Geoff was a lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology teaching environmental science, zoology, botany and marine biology. Geoff is a leading author and illustrator of New Zealand natural history books for the general public having written more than 15. His book, Dinosaurs of New Zealand was the first book for the public on the subject while Prehistoric Animals of New Zealand was the first overview of this country’s prehistory. Similarly, Fountains of Fire the Story of Auckland’s Volcanoes was the first account for the public of the 50 or so volcanoes that pepper the landscape of New Zealand’s largest city. Other topics have included the Southern Alps, whales and sharks.  In addition, working principally as a natural history artist, he has illustrated over 70 books for other authors, designed three sets of New Zealand Post stamps, one set of American Post first day covers (featuring dinosaurs) and produced posters for several clients, including New Zealand Geographic magazine and the World Wildlife Fund.

Jan Post

Jan Post obtained his masters degree in biology from Leiden University, The Netherlands. He is an avid diver and under water photographer and  spent a year in Curacao writing his thesis on coral reef ecology. In The Netherlands he was involved in the struggle to preserve the ecological integrity of  the country’s biggest estuary  to which his book “Oosterschelde” made a major contribution. He spent 2 years in the Negev desert in Israel on a project to reintroduce the original biblical desert fauna. He then became the first ecologist hired by a large Dutch International Engineering Firm in charge of the environmental impact of  projects in developing countries. After ten years he accepted an offer by the World Bank  to work in its newly established Environment Department. This assignment, like his previous job, sent him all over the world with an emphasis on  Western Indian Ocean countries, Central Asia and Latin America. He designed and managed several projects financed by the Global Environment Facility, a grant fund that is housed in the World Bank. In 2002 he won the World Bank’s “Innovation in the Marketplace” contest (open world wide) with the design of a project that protects the rainforest in Peru while at the same time providing a livelihood for the local population. The project became the subject of a T.V. film “Frogs of Gold” that has been shown all over the world.

Jan has traveled to Australia four times and is involved in conservation work in New Zealand, co-financing the  Brook Waimarama Sanctuary project. At home in the U.S.A, he keeps and breeds poison dart frogs in an in-house green house. 

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.

Field studies have taken Allen to geologic sites all over the world, including Iceland, Alaska, Japan, the Caribbean, South Africa, Mexico, the Canadian Rockies, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Sicily, Patagonia, 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.

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 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

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.