Richard Wiese, author of Born to Explore: How To Be a Backyard Adventurer, in 2002 became the youngest president in The Explorers Club's hundred-year history. As an Emmy-¬winning journalist, outdoorsman, and respected field scientist, Wiese has traveled to all seven continents. He has tagged jaguars in the Yucatan jungles, led an expedition to the Northern Territory of Australia to probe the Aboriginal myth of the Rainbow Serpent, co-discovered 202 new forms of life in the first microbial survey of Central Park in NYC, and founded the Central Park "Bio Blitz": 24 hour, cataloging of all life forms in the park. He was a team member of the largest medical expedition ever conducted on Mt. Everest, achieved the first ascent of an unclimbed mountain in Alaska, discovered 29 new life forms on Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, and cross country skied to the North Pole. He has climbed and sampled the most geologically unique volcano in the world, Tanzania's Oldonyo Lengai during a recent eruption, completed two expeditions to Antarctica to core glaciers for climatology studies, trekked down the deepest canyon in the world, the Colca Canyon in Peru, and participated in the Yeronisos Island Expedition, an archaeological dig in Cyprus to find the birth temple of Caesarion son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. Most recently he traveled to the hottest place on earth in Ethiopia to attempt to extract fragments of DNA from molten lava to look for evidence of microbial life in conditions never thought able to support life.

Wiese has hosted many television shows including, Fox's Beyond Tomorrow, Earth and Space, and Exploration with Richard Wiese, which is syndicated and can be viewed around the world. He also just completed filming a special series with the BBC and Discovery Channel called Hell on Earth. He has appeared on Late Night with Craig Ferguson, CNN, Dateline, FOX News, BBC, MSNBC, ABC News, CBS Morning Show, Good Morning America, WB11's Morning Show, and many other programs, as well as in USA Today, the New York Times, Newsday, People, Esquire, Science, the Washington Post, National Geographic, the Los Angeles Times, the Times of London, Wine Spectator, and Forbes.

An accomplished keynote speaker, Wiese has been honored to present at the United Nations, Royal Geographical Society, Bohemian Grove, University of Miami School of Engineering, Congress of Argentina, Icelandic Whitehouse, World Adventure Travel Summit, Africa Foundation, Abercrombie and Kent's Friends of Conservation, Common Wealth North Symposium, and to the Boy Scouts of America at their National Jamboree.

In 2006 the American Museum of Natural History Expeditions named Wiese an Explorer in residence. He was honored at the 2005 Boy Scout National Jamboree, where he addressed 90,000 people and had a camp named after him. By invitation of King Mohammad VI, he was the U.S. representative to the Moussem de Tan Tan, a gathering of 45,000 nomadic Arabs in Morocco, and he received a Special lifetime achievement award by the Science Museum of Long Island. As a journalist, he has received numerous honors, including an Emmy, a Genesis Award, an Associated Press Folio Award, and a Golden Halo Advertising Award for Best Environmental/Wildlife Campaign. His articles have appeared in countless national publications.

In Born to Explore and his presentations, Wiese dispels the claim that backyards are boring. He gives practical projects that can be done to understand the physical world better and more importantly to spark an enthusiasm for getting out into it more. Ever wonder how people got by without GPS? Wiese shares how to navigate by the stars. Ever been weary of wearing a watch? He tells how to tell time without one. Want to start a fire without matches or lighter fluid? When the snow is flying ever dream about making an igloo like an Eskimo? He can teach audiences all that and more. Every audience takes away at least something intriguing, something handy, and something to prepare them for any challenge.

Wiese believes that living an active outdoor nature-filled life in today's society is challenging but certainly not impossible. His illustrated lecture introduces many aspects of outdoor living that most people, young and old alike, might not notice - such as fossil hunting, navigating with stars, predicting the weather from nature, building a radio that does not require electricity, and even making coffee from a bean that grows in New York's Central Park. The message is not simply about spending more time outdoors; it is also about the act of doing, being creative, civic mindedness, and learning skills that will make you become an interesting and more evolved person.

Wiese's father was the first person to fly solo over the Pacific Ocean in an airplane. Wiese's first taste of adventure came when he was 11 years old when he and his father climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Since that time he has led over a dozen expeditions to this very same mountain. Inspired by a favorite Uncle Dr. Richard Lanza of MIT's Nuclear Engineering Department, he graduated Brown University with a science degree. He now shares his uncle's passion for getting young people engaged and enthusiastic about science and the wonders of the great outdoors.

Wiese, his safari-guide wife Nicci, and their daughter Sabrina live between New York City and Westport, Connecticut.

Born to Explore: How To Be a Backyard Adventurer

Discovery Is For Everyone

Getting Kids Off Their Computers and Outside

Survival and Outdoor Skills

Exploration, Extreme Adventure, Leadership

Adventure, Technology, Keynote, Inspiring, Motivational,