Founder & Executive Director
Biosphere Expeditions was founded in 1999 by Dr. Matthias Hammer. Born in Germany, he went to school there, before joining the Army at 18, and serving for several years amongst other units with the German Parachute Regiment. After active service he came to the UK and was educated at St Andrews, Oxford and Cambridge. During his time at university he either organised or was involved in the running of several expeditions, some of which were conservation expeditions (for example to the Brazil Amazon and Madagascar), whilst others were mountaineering/climbing expeditions (for example to the Russian Caucasus, the Alps or the Rocky Mountains). With Biosphere Expeditions he has led teams all over the globe. He is a qualified wilderness medical officer, ski instructor, mountain leader, divemaster and survival skills instructor. Once a rower on the international circuit, he is now an amateur marathon runner and Ironman triathlete.
> Expeditions assignments 2011: Oman, Peru, Namibia, Maldives, Western Australia
> Expedition assignments 2012: Emirates
Strategy Director
Kathy Gill joined Biosphere Expeditions in 2000. She was born and educated in England. Since gaining her BA in Business at Bristol, she has worked in sustainable development and regeneration for a variety of public sector organisations, most recently the Regional Development Agency for the East of England where she was responsible for developing and supporting partnership working to establish sustainable development activities. At the main office Kathy is also one of two Directors and is in charge of the UK organisation. She has travelled extensively, led expeditions and recceed projects all over the world. She is a qualified off-road driver, divemaster, marathon runner, keen walker, sailor, diver and all round nature enthusiast.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Malaysia reconnaissance
> Expedition assignments 2012: Slovakia, Malaysia, Maldives
Communications Manager
Kate Curnow was born and educated in Australia. She attended Melbourne and Swinburne Universities. Her work and family commitments have taken her around the globe, with much time spent living in Hong Kong, England and Canada. She is a qualified teacher, nurse and open water diver. She loves hiking & cycling. Since 2007 Kate has been involved in Biosphere Expeditions, either as team member or assisting with research and setting up expeditions.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Slovakai reconnaissance, Maldives
Operations Manager Germany
Malika Fettak is half Algerian, but was born and educated in Germany. She majored in Marketing & Communication at the University of Frankfurt, which led her to jobs in PR & Communications. She has travelled widely, especially in Africa and Northern Europe. Her love of nature and the outdoors, and taking part in a few Biosphere expeditions, persuaded her that a change of career was in order and here she is since 2008, leading expeditions and desperately trying to make herself useful around the office :) Malika is a keen sportswoman - triathlon, skiing, volleyball, etc. and enjoys the outdoors.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Brazil
> Expedition assignments 2012: Emirates, Azores, Honduras
Operations Manager Australia
Sarah Low was born in Australia and educated at Monash University and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland where she studied languages. Her love of the outdoors has taken her to Eastern and Southern Africa on several occasions as well as the Seychelles and Fraser Island, Queensland. She holds a dive certificate and is a keen downhill skier. When Sarah joined Biosphere Expeditions in 2007, it fulfilled a long-standing desire to get involved and make a contribution to the conservation of endangered wildlife species around the globe.
Operations Manager North America
Donna Evans was born and educated in the USA and joined Biosphere Expeditions in 2011. With degrees in Mathematics and Travel & Tourism to her name, Donna spent the first years of her career as a flight attendant before becoming a travel agent in the 1990s. Donna has travelled extensively throughout the US, all seven continents and nearly 100 countries. Donna is also an adventure travel specialist with numerous trips to off the beaten path places such as Madagascar and Oman, where she first came across Biosphere Expeditions before becoming our North American Operations Manager.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Oman
Resident Biologist Namibia
Kristina Killian was born in Germany and studied biology at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her main research interests are the ecology and behaviour of mammals and their conservation. Amongst other things, she has investigated zebra herd behaviour, red deer and whale acoustics and the endangered Darwin Fox on Chiloé, Chile. She has travelled and worked in Spain, Australia, Argentina and Namibia. Her other big passion is horses and she has worked in a professional equestrian centre and has travelled as a horse groom around Europe. In Namibia Kristina is in charge of running and developing all Biosphere Expeditions projects in that country.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Namibia
> Expedition assignments 2012: Namibia
Operations Assistant France
Pascal Tchengang was born in Paris, but his roots go back to Guadeloupe and Cameroon. He is a business school graduate, living and working in Paris, and he has travelled extensively all around the world. He first discovered Biosphere Expeditions on a French TV documentary and went on expedition to Namibia. In the Paris agency Pascal is in charge of communication and administration, but he also joins expeditions in the field whenever his time allows.
President of the "Friends of Biosphere Expeditions"
Martyn Roberts is the President of the "Friends", a society for those who would like to stay in touch with Biosphere Expeditions and involved in our work. Martyn is a seasoned expeditioner (he has been on expedition to the Altai, Namibia, Slovakia, Sri Lanka and the Azores) and a critical friend.
Expedition leader
Peter Schuette was born in Germany. He studied geography and cartography at the University Bremen (Germany) and Göteborg universitet (Sweden) and geoinformatics in Salzburg (Austria). He has worked in several mapping and remote sensing projects all over the world. In 2004 and 2005 Peter was involved in wildlife conservation projects in Namibia, where he joined Biosphere Expeditions as member of the team of local scientists and was promptly bitten by the wildlife expeditions bug. He has travelled in Scandinavia, Iceland, Southern Africa, North America and Central Asia.Peter holds First Aid and Off-Road driving certificates and has been to Namibia, Altai and Oman for Biosphere Expeditions.
> Expedition assignments 2012: Slovakia.
Expedition leader
Andy Stronach was born in Scotland, studied Engineering and then flew aircraft for the Royal Air Force before working in wildlife. Surveys of wild plants, birds and marine mammals led him into anti-wildlife crime work that has become his passion and taken him all over Britain and Cyprus. He has taken part in expeditions to Belize, Honduras and Sulawesi, surveying coral reefs and rainforest. Due to a rare allergy to offices, Andrew is almost always found outdoors, whether it is working in the highlands of Scotland, trekking in some remote national park on one of his many foreign travels or dangling from a rope on a rock face.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Altai
Expedition leader
Ronald Seipold graduated from the University of Berlin with a Masters Degree in Business Administration and then spent several years working in different branches of industries leading organisational and IT related projects. He then decided to go for a total change of career & lifestyle and focus on his passion for travelling, wildlife and the outdoors. After a 100 day intensive training course with COLT (Canadian Outdoor Leader Training) he qualified as an outdoor leader, radio operator, sea kayak and canoeing guide, backcountry first-aider, etc.. Ronald then began leading and instructing groups in the outdoors primarily in Scandinavia and Canada as well as working for outdoor camps and lodges. Ronald joined Biosphere Expeditions in 2007. His favourite activities are mountaineering, canoeing and climbing.
Expedition Leader
Paul Franklin was born in Oxford and studied zoology at Swansea University. His Masters Degree was based on research of the migratory behaviour and ecology of amphibians. After graduation Paul spent a year working as a naturalist guide in the Peruvian Amazon. There, among other things, he was bitten by the travel bug. Since then he has led many expeditions and treks to far flung corners of the globe. Travels overseas have been interspersed with time spent in the UK working, among other things, as a Nature Reserve Warden and Environmental Consultant. Never far from a camera, many of his wildlife and travel images have been published in magazines and books. When not travelling on foot through the world's wild places his preferred modes of transport are a kayak, mountain bike or occasionally a horse.
Expedition Leader
David Moore was born and educated in England and now lives in the UK and France. He graduated in French and German and studied Japanese while working for two years in Tokyo. His expedition/group leading experience began with Japanese educational trips in Australia and he has since worked in the Caribbean and throughout Europe for companies such as P&O, Explorica and Alyson Adventures. David joined Biosphere Expeditions in 2003 and has led expeditions to the Azores, Namibia, Peru and Brazil. He is also active in the running of Biosphere Expeditions operations in France together with Pascal Tchengang.
Expedition Leader
Jennifer Kraushaar qualified as a vet at the University of Giessen in Germany. As part of her training, she spent time at various wildlife clinics in Australia and Canada. Her work as a vet also took her to Asia where she spent some months working with injured elephants. Jennifer has also completed a one-year course in safari field guiding in South Africa. Her field work experience includes research on lions in the Greater Kruger National Park and hands-on chimpanzee work with the Jane Goodall Institute. Back in Europe, she has trained and treated sledge dogs in Norway before returning to Africa, where she is currently doing her PhD research on rabies in Namibia.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Namibia, Azores, Altai
> Expedition assignments 2012: Altai
Expedition Leader
Paul o'Dowd was born in Melbourne, Australia. From the beginning, his primary interests have been natural history and adventure. As a teenager he learned to dive and at 19 years old left Victoria to move to Cairns to work on the Great Barrier Reef in the dive industry. Shortly thereafter he was offered a job managing a dive facility in Papua New Guinea. In PNG Paul became involved in expeditionary and documentary film work. Paul has worked for the BBC’s Natural History Unit and various other companies on documentary projects as well as with assorted tourism-based expeditions to places such as the Sepik Basin and the Kokoda Track. Paul also delivers a lecture programme in rainforest ecology, conservation and sustainability for a study abroad programme for American university students. A broad base of scientific literacy and a genuine interest in communication has led to a career in introducing diverse audiences to the natural world. Diving, rock climbing and just about anything that provides a good opportunity to get into nature and help others to do the same is Paul’s idea of time well spent.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Oman, Honduras, Western Australia
> Expedition assignments 2012: Malaysia.
Expedition Leader
Jiri Haureljuk was born in the Czech Republic and now lives in Australia. In this home country, Jiri studied forestry and after compulsory military service he worked for the regional forestry department as a forester and part-time ranger. His first long-haul trip aroad, to India and Nepal, turned out to be life-changing as Jiri was bitten by the travel bug. After a serious spell of globetrotting, he started leading groups in Kenya and the Middle East, before he eventually moved to Africa. There he spent five years, on and off, traversing almost the entire continent on an overland truck and safari guiding before finally moving to Melbourne. When not travelling around the world chasing elusive animals for Biosphere Expeditions and his ever-growing photo library, Jiri is running Melbourne-based wildlife tours, showing visitors the beauty of Victoria state. Jiri is also a published photographer and a keen sportsman.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Peru, Altai
> Expedition assignments 2012: Altai
Expedition leader
Rossella Meloni was born in Italy and has lived and worked in the UK for 12 years before moving to Muscat, in the Sultanate of Oman where she currently lives. She studied languages in Italy and IT in the UK with Birkbeck University of London. Since her first cautious breath underwater, well over a decade ago, she has become increasingly interested in the beauty and welfare of the underwater world. Her love for the marine environment and the outdoors encouraged her to quit her 9-5 job to volunteer on a marine expedition in Madagascar in 2006 and later to continue training as an Open Water Diving Instructor. These days when she is not busy on expedition, with uni or lecturing students on the wonders of breathing under water and the importance of preserving this fragile environment, she can be found exploring all sorts of outdoor activities that Oman has on offer. She is also a keen City & Guilds trained photographer, RYA Competent Crew and a qualified Emergency First Response trainer.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Musandam
> Expedition assignments 2012: Musandam, Maldives
Expedition leader in training
Erin McCloskey was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and obtained a degree in Conservation Biology from the University of Alberta. Erin has worked with several environmental and wildlife conservation organisations as well as in publishing. She is a travel journalist, an editor and the author of several field guides, natural history books and other titles for various publishers around the world. Since 2000, Erin has lived in Italy, California and for the past two years in New Zealand, where she works as a guide and nature interpreter. With Biosphere Expeditions, Erin has gone to Namibia, Brazil and Oman. Previous lives were as a ballet dancer and a cowgirl.
> Expedition assignments 2011: Western Australia
Expedition leader in training
Alisa Clickenger was born in the United States and educated at Bennington College in Vermont. After many successful years in the corporate world, she fell in love with the path less travelled. She now lives a life of travel and adventure, and writes about it for several magazines. An experienced overlander on two and four wheels, in 2009 Alisa’s love of nature and foreign cultures brought her on a seven month solo journey through Central and South America seeking wildlife and wild places. An experienced tour guide in the adventure travel field, at Biosphere Expeditions Alisa realises a dream - that of combining her love of people with her love of wildlife and conservation.
> Expedition assignments 2012: Azores
Expedition leader in training
Daniel Twort was born in Sheffield, England and educated at Manchester University. After university he worked amongst other jobs as a travel agent and spent a year and a half living and working in New Zealand. Daniel is a qualified Mountain Leader and makes his living as a freelance outdoor instructor and expedition leader, indulging his passion for geography and the natural world. Daniel has led expeditions to Argentina, Uganda, Borneo, Costa Rica Thailand and Laos, and has spent time trekking and mountaineering around the world including Nepal and South America. His hobbies are mountain biking, trekking, travel and climbing.
> Expedition assignments 2012: Slovakia
Expedition leader in training
Clayton Purvis was born in the USA and educated at the University of Washington. Since graduating in International Studies in 2004 he has spent his life travelling. He is a teacher at heart and has travelled the world teaching rope access/rope rescue, SCUBA diving, English language, Western horse back riding, first aid, and leading numerous outdoor adventure trips, including led education and conservation expeditions in Honduras, Thailand, Mexico, Australia, Canada and the USA. Clayton is also a SCUBA diving instructor with over a thousand dives. When he is not working, he is continually travelling and owns little more than what he can carry and the occasional motorcycle.
> Expedition assignments 2012: Honduras
Honduras: Italo Bonilla (left) recently appeared with Cameron Diaz on MTV, so he is now a well-known movie star 
. He is also a biologist, PADI dive instructor and Emergency First Response instructor. He has worked for the United States Geological Survey and within several reef survey methodologies, amongst them Reef Check and on many expeditions in Belize and Honduras.
Brazil: Dr. Marcelo Mazzolli is Biosphere Expeditions' cat biologist. Born in Brazil, he graduated in Biology in 1992, with a master’s degree from the University of Durham, UK. His Ph.D. in ecology, obtained in Brazil, was on the effects of human occupation on the extinction of large mammals, especially cats. He has devoted his career to the study of large mammals, particularly cats, but has had many other outdoors experiences. He was a professional jungle guide in the Amazon forest in 1986 at age 21. He has attended many national and international workshops, and published many scientific articles. His studies have made his work well known, and early in his career he was invited to be a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Cat Specialist Group with one of his projects listed as a priority in the World Wide Cat Action Plan. He has travelled extensively, living in the United States, England, and Peru, and working on cats all over the world. He also claims to be a good cook and keeps dabbling with the meal plan on expedition!
Oman: Dr. Andrew Spalton came to Oman in 1987 to work on the reintroduction of the Arabian oryx. After six years at the project field headquarters in central Oman he left for Aberdeen (Scotland) to complete his PhD on the ecology of the oryx. Returning to Oman in 1995, Andrew took up a new post in Muscat. While continuing to help oversee the oryx project, he undertook new work with the Arabian leopard and Arabian tahr. He set up the Arabian Leopard Survey which collected the first information on the ecology of the highly endangered Arabian leopards.
Azores: Lisa Steiner (left) graduated in Marine Science in 1988 at University of Miami and joined the IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) cetacean research vessel “Song of the Whale” two weeks later, which at the time was based in the Azores. Since then Lisa has spent all her summers working on cetaceans around the Azores and at other times has also studied them in Alabama, Hawaii, Cape Verdes, Bermuda, Scotland and Madeira. She has published numerous research papers on cetaceans.
Altai: Volodya Tytar was born in 1951 and his Master’s Degree in Biology is from Kiev State University. At that time he first experienced the Altai mountains and wrote a paper on the ecology of the brown bear in the Altai. He then pursued a career as an invertebrate zoologist before shifting towards large mammals and management planning for nature conservation. Apart from the Altai, he has worked with Biosphere Expeditions on wolves, vipers and jerboas on the Ukraine Black Sea coast and has been involved in surveying and conservation measures all his professional life.
Namibia: Ulf Tubbesing is the owners of the Ongos study site and farm and oversees the study design and local involvement. Ulf, Namibian by birth, graduated in veterinary science from the Onderstepoort Veterinary Faculty, Pretoria, South Africa in 1983. After a year in private practice he returned to Onderstepoort where he lectured in small animal medicine for nine years. In 1994 he returned to Namibia and has since then been involved in private practice with small animal and wildlife medicine and surgery as focal points. In 2004 Ulf and a business associate bought the farm Ongos (previously a cattle ranch), which has since been rehabilitated into a well stocked game ranch. Ulf is also heavily involved in game capture and translocation operations. Ulf still has close ties with the academic staff at the University of Pretoria and frequently lectures to the nature conservation students of the local Technical College (Polytechnic of Namibia) as well as Namibian farmers.
Musandam: Rita Bento was born in Portugal. She has a degree in Marine Biology from the University of the Azores and a Masters in Marine Resources from Porto University. Her first area of research was bioacoustics of baleen whales, working in the USA with Oregon State University and NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration). In the last few years she has focussed her research on Marine Protected Areas (MPA) currently working with the Emirates Diving Association on the management plan of Dibba MPA in the UAE. Rita is also a Reef Check instructor with hundreds of Reef Check dives. Besides her scientific career, she is also a CMAS diving instructor and published the first Portuguese diving guide in 2007.
Peru: Alfredo Dosantos Santillán was born in Iquitos, Peru, and graduated in Biological Sciences at the National University of the Peruvian Amazon at Iquitos. Alfredo has worked for several conservation projects and has played a role in the creation of three protected areas. He has also acted as a consultant for WWF at the Yurua River Project and for The Wildlife Conservation Society at the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve monitoring wildlife key (indicator) species, and at the Yavari River Project monitoring primate population. He works actively for the preservation of the Amazon forest and the cultural patrimony of different ethnic groups in many different locations in the Peruvian Amazon.
Western Australia: Glenn McFarlane has more than seven years experience working hands-on with sea turtles in Central America and Australia. Glenn moved to Costa Rica in 2004 with the aim of building the first secure turtle hatchery at Cahuita National Park. This achieved, along with a vastly reduced local poaching rate of eggs and turtles plus years of gained experience at many projects, he returned home to Australia to continue working on establishing sea turtle conservation and research projects. Glenn has led more than 500 turtle patrols, walked over 6,000 km and handled more than 37,000 eggs in his efforts for turtle conservation.
Slovakia: Tomas Hulik is a wildlife film maker, photographer and environmentalist. He graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Komensky, Environmental Department in Bratislava. He has participated in scientific and photographic expeditions to the Far East of Russia, to the island of Sakhalin, as well as to Borneo and Malaysia. Next to his work as a biologist, he also works in environments such as a television, either as a cameraman or as a producer. His films “Hulik and the beavers”, “High Tatras – wilderness frozen in time” and “Miloš and the lynxes” were distributed worldwide. His last project “Miloš and the lynxes” has brought him back to science. Working in lynxes and other big predator conservation and trying to establish the size of lynx and wolf territories, as well as the ecology of these carnivores, in the Veľká Fatra and Mala Fatra National Parks.
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