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Richard Wiese

Explorer; Former President, The Explorers Club

Richard Wiese is a highly respected outdoorsmen and explorer.  In 2002, he became the youngest president in the Explorers Club Clubs hundred-year history.  The fabled society’s members have included Teddy Roosevelt, Neil Armstrong, Charles Lindberg, Bob Ballard, Jane Goodall, and Sir Edmund Hillary.  He has hosted many nationally seen television shows, most recently Exploration with Richard Wiese.  He has just completed filming a special series in Ethiopia with the BBC and Discovery called Hell on Earth about the hottest place on Earth.

Wiese has worked in the Yucatan jungle of Mexico putting satellite collars on jaguars; climbed and sampled the most geologically unique volcano in the world, Tanzania’s Oldonyo Lengai; and has been a member of two expeditions to Antarctica to core glaciers for the purpose of climatological studies. Expedition member of the 2004 Yeronisos Island Expedition, an archaeological dig in Cyprus to find the birth temple of Caesarion son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar and in 2005 led an expedition to bio-prospect for extremophiles and new life forms in Mount Kilimanjaro’s crater, resulting in the discovery of 29 new life forms. He also trekked down the deepest canyon in the world and was involved in the first microbial survey of Central Park in NYC resulting in the discovery of 202 new and unique life forms.