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NEW YORK, May 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Explorers Club today announced the 2021 Global Exploration Summit (GLEX)'s slate of programming will include the world's leading visionaries, explorers and scientists. The second annual summit - made possible with support of Turismo de Portugal and sponsored by VisitAzores - will feature more than 20 panels that will dive into recent advancements in land, sea and space exploration. 

Taking place in Portugal and remotely this July, the GLEX Summit's notable confirmed guests include:

• Amanda Gorman, National Youth Poet Laureate, with her poem Earthrise;
• David Blaine, American illusionist, endurance artist, and extreme performer;
• Fabien Cousteau, aquanaut, Ocean explorer, environmentalist and visionary behind PROTEUS™, the world's most advanced underwater scientific research station and habitat to address humanity's most critical concerns;
• Brian Cox, English physicist and former musician who serves as professor of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. He is also well-known for his widely popular BBC miniseries on the cosmos, titled "Wonders of the Universe"; 
• Craig Foster, South African documentary filmmaker and naturalist known for Academy Award winning documentary film, "My Octopus Teacher";
• Austin Gallagher, marine scientist working at the intersection of threatened species conservation and protected areas, known as a world-authority on sharks;
• Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux, CEO of Global Space Ventures;
• Richard Garriott de Cayeux, President of The Explorers Club, one of the first civilians to travel in space, and has now reached the four cardinal "directions" of the earth: orbiting above it aboard the International Space Station, reaching the North Pole and South Pole and recently the deepest point of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench;
• Dominique Gonçalves, Manager of the Gorongosa National Park's Elephant Ecology Project in Mozambique;
• Beverly Goodman - Marine geoarchaeologist, micropaleontologist. Mediterranean, Red Sea;
• Shelton Johnson, Yosemite National Park Ranger with over 30 years of experience with the National Park Service, long-time advocate for bringing minorities, particularly African-Americans, to the National Parks and connecting them to the natural world;
• Erling Kagge, Norwegian explorer, publisher, author, lawyer, art collector, entrepreneur and politician;
• Dr. Nina Lanza, Team Lead for Space and Planetary Exploration in Space and Remote Sensing (ISR-2) at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Principal Investigator of the ChemCam instrument onboard the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, and a science team member for the SuperCam instrument onboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover;
• Rodrigo Medellin, known as the "Bat Man of Mexico," is a professor of ecology and conservation at the Institute of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico;
• Dr. Bertrand Piccard, explorer, medical doctor and visionary behind Solar Impulse;
• Russell L. (Rusty) Schweickart, Apollo 9 astronaut and co-founder of the B612 Foundation, a non-profit private foundation that champions the development of spaceflight capability to protect Earth from future asteroid impacts;
• Dr. Alan Stern, a planetary scientist, space program executive, aerospace consultant, and author who previously led NASA's New Horizons mission that successfully explored the Pluto system
• Madison Stewart, AKA Shark Girl, is a documentarian and shark conservation expert;
• Elizabeth Turtle, planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics. Laboratory; and
• Victor Vescovo, retired US Navy officer, Texan adventurer who recently was the first person to visit the oceans' deepest points.

"We are once again thrilled to host the world's leading explorers at the GLEX Summit in Portugal," said Richard Garriott, President of The Explorers Club. "During a year that proved to be challenging for so many fellow explorers, GLEX provides us an opportunity to come together to discuss new research and technological breakthroughs that have contributed to a further understanding of life on land, in our seas and potentially beyond. This last year has also taught us much about how we can better share the power of exploration with more and more people, and also to learn that exploration can take place at home and far away, both equally expanding our understanding of what it means to be alive today."

The wide-ranging discussions will include recent developments in Mars exploration this year, the commercialization of private space travel, including special panels on "Breaking Barriers in Space" with insight from Richard Garriott, Dr. Nina Lanza, Dr. Elizabeth Turtle and Dr. Alan Stern. Dr. Brian Cox will also lead a discussion, titled "Beyond the Final Frontier, where he will highlight the future of exploration into the cosmos. 

Other discussions will highlight the future of our vast ocean ecosystems with Fabien Cousteau, advancements of the "Blue Economy" featuring Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux and Victor Viscovo as well as past historical shipwrecks such as the Shipwreck of Vasco de Gama's Esmerelda that have fueled discovery for generations. There will also be dedicated sessions on the ongoing conflict between wildlife and humans, new conservation efforts, climate change and sustainability.  

As the global media partner for GLEX, Discovery will give worldwide audiences the opportunity to experience expeditions and new research featured at GLEX on both linear and digital platforms. Previously, the Club successfully rolled out The Explorers Club Discovery Expedition Grants program, awarding over $400,000 for cutting-edge scientific research in 2020. 

GLEX held its inaugural event in July 2019 in Lisbon, with hundreds of explorers showcasing their latest discoveries and research as well as plans for future expeditions. The first summit included the world's greatest explorers and scientists and brought together leading explorers to commemorate Megellan's 500th Circumnavigation Anniversary.

Portugal was selected as home for the recurring summit timed to the 500th anniversary of the first scientific human expedition, the Magellan and Elcano circumnavigation. The event acknowledges the history of global exploration as well as the impact that that exploration has had on indigenous cultures and the environment. Today, as borders are erased, and the world confronts beyond boundaries challenges like climate change, GLEX also looks at the intersection of exploration and science to help further our understanding of life and to help educate people across the globe about our common heritage.

GLEX participants are also expected once again to sign onto the Lisbon Declaration, a promise among leaders in exploration, science and research to a worldwide effort to promote environmental preservation, particularly the planet's most pristine habitats, and to inspire people to reconnect with nature.

About The Explorers Club:

Since its inception in 1904, members of the Club have traversed the earth, the seas, the skies, and even the moon, on expeditions of exploration. First to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean and first to the surface of the moon - all accomplished by Explorers Club Members. Notable members include Teddy Roosevelt, Neil Armstrong, Jane Goodall, Edmund Hillary, John Glenn, Sally Ride and Bob Ballard.

GLEX is a Co-Organization from The Explorers Club and Expanding World. The curatorship and programming have the prestige and the global network of TEC, leaving the management of the entire operation to the experience and expertise of Expanding World.

SOURCE The Explorers Club