The Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation, together with the National Geographic Society, is proud to support the Emerging Explorers Program. For more than 116 years, the National Geographic Society has supported and chronicled the achievements of some of the most famous explorers of the 20th century. National Geographic continues to play an important role in sponsoring expeditions and scientific investigations. Through the Emerging Explorers Program, National Geographic identifies and supports the next generation of adventurers, researchers, photographers and storytellers.

National Geographic uses the Emerging Explorers program to spotlight uniquely gifted, inspiring, visionary individuals – while they're still at the start of their careers, before their names and works are known and recognized worldwide. These individuals represent tomorrow's Meave Leakeys, Bob Ballards and Jane Goodalls.

Each year, National Geographic selects between 6 and 10 Emerging Explorers to celebrate and support with seed grants for their field projects. Emerging Explorers can come from all walks of scientific disciplines, including non-traditional categories like cartography, education, filmmaking, music, space exploration, and technology. Their work will be publicized through National Geographic's media channels to allow people to experience the “new” world of exploration in an emerging, fresh, exciting and educational way.

2008 EMERGING EXPLORERS

Alexandra Cousteau - Social Environmental Advocate

The daughter and granddaughter of legendary explorers, Alexandra is pioneering new ways to save the world's ocean wonders. She employs the latest forms of interactive media -- text messaging, video games and social websites -- to mobilize a new generation to protect, manage and restore our irreplaceable ocean resources.

Jill Pruetz - Biological Anthropologist

Jill braves the scorching heat, poisonous snakes and ever-present risk of malaria to observe and document the behavior of the wild chimpanzees of the savanna. Unlike their forest cousins, savanna chimps must adapt and survive in an environment much like the one that gave rise to our own species; Jill's observation of our closest animal cousins is casting a new light on human origins.

Hammerskjoeld Simwinga -Wildlife Conservationist

In a poverty-stricken region of Zambia, Hammerskjoeld has introduced sustainable alternatives to the poaching of endangered species. By teaching practices of scientific agriculture, public health and microcredit, he has reduced childhood mortality and brought jobs and ecotourism to the region, proving that conservation and economic development can go hand-in-hand.

Zinhle Thabethe - Humanitarian and Musician

An HIV-positive patient who was once given a year to live, Zinhle has become one of South Africa's leading advocates for AIDS treatment and prevention, and a lead singer with the internationally acclaimed Sinikithemba Choir. Composed entirely of HIV-positive singers, the choir is spreading the word that AIDS is treatable, and giving hope to a country where over 900 a day die from the disease.

Martin Wikelski - Zoologist and Physiological Ecologist

Changes in animal migration pattern can signal events as momentous as climate change, epidemics and tidal waves. Martin is consolidating old and new data on animal migration -- from firsthand observation to satellite photography -- in a single online database, allowing scientists around the world to compare their findings instantaneously.

Brad Norman - Marine Conservationist

The whale shark is the biggest fish in the ocean, the size of a large bus, yet it is also one of the most rarely seen. Brad has devised an algorithm to identify and record the skin patterns of individual whale sharks, and database technology to study their movements, and ensure the conservation of these survivors of the Jurassic Period.

Cid Simoes and Paola Segura - Sustainable Agriculturists and Development Experts

The sustainable agribusinesses that Cid and Paola have started in Brazil are giving small farmers sustainable alternatives to the slash-and-burn agriculture that has devastated the rain forest. With the new skills this husband-and-wife team have taught them, farmers can earn twice as much from far less land, improving their communities and reducing the pressure to migrate to Brazil's overburdened cities.

Tsetsegee Munkhbayar - Environmental Conservationist

After a youth of herding yaks on the banks of Mongolia's Onggi River, Tsetsegee saw his country's rivers and lakes destroyed by unregulated mining, a population devastated by contaminated groundwater and a traditional way of life disappearing forever. He organized a successful grassroots movement to enforce mining regulations and restore Mongolia's waterways.

Sol Guy and Josh Thome - New Media Cultural Storytellers

A former hip-hop recording executive and a young environmental activist joined forces to create 4REAL, a television reality show in which celebrity guests travel to Africa, Asia and South America meet the young social entrepreneurs who are combating disease, poverty and environmental destruction. Sol and Josh's multimedia production company is teaching young people around the world that "it's cool to care."