Tierney Thys
National Geographic Explorer, Marine Biologist, Science Educator, & Filmmaker
Image from Mike Johnson
In 2003, The Lindbergh Foundation awarded Tierney a grant to gather vital conservation information on the giant ocean sunfishes. Tierney’s grant provided funds for high-tech satellite tags to track several ocean sunfish off the coast of California. Data gathered helped inform fisheries managers and played a significant role in stopping the use of harmful drift gillnets, wherein hundreds of individual fish are caught as bycatch.
Tierney recollects it was the first meeting where she presented her work and received the Lindbergh grant that acted as a catalyst for her conservation career. Her work impressed a former Lindbergh board member who nominated Tierney to present at a TED conference. Tierney later joined the TED Braintrust alongside influential leaders in tech and philanthropy. With that exposure, Tierney caught the attention of National Geographic and became one of six National Geographic Emerging Explorers. The National Geographic Society has since awarded her ten additional conservation grants, and she now serves as an expert on Nat Geo expeditions around the globe each year.
“The Lindbergh Foundation’s mission of using technology to live in greater harmony with the non-human world deeply resonates with me, and the ripple effect of receiving a Lindbergh grant has been immense,” Tierney explained. “To this day, I continue to carry the torch of using science to protect nature.”
As a National Geographic Explorer and Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences, Tierney continues work on ocean sunfish and recently collaborated with 60 scientists to publish the first- academic book on sunfishes. Her diversified research, which includes studying impacts of nature imagery on human wellbeing, yielded a project listed as one of TIME Magazine’s Top Inventions of 2014. Most recently, Tierney cofounded an educational non-profit, Around The World in 80 Fabrics, to raise awareness of microplastic pollution from fast fashion and celebrate biodiverse alternatives to petroleum-based fabrics.
To learn more about Tierney Thys’ work, please visit:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/expeditions/experts/tierney-thys/
Tierney recollects it was the first meeting where she presented her work and received the Lindbergh grant that acted as a catalyst for her conservation career. Her work impressed a former Lindbergh board member who nominated Tierney to present at a TED conference. Tierney later joined the TED Braintrust alongside influential leaders in tech and philanthropy. With that exposure, Tierney caught the attention of National Geographic and became one of six National Geographic Emerging Explorers. The National Geographic Society has since awarded her ten additional conservation grants, and she now serves as an expert on Nat Geo expeditions around the globe each year.
“The Lindbergh Foundation’s mission of using technology to live in greater harmony with the non-human world deeply resonates with me, and the ripple effect of receiving a Lindbergh grant has been immense,” Tierney explained. “To this day, I continue to carry the torch of using science to protect nature.”
As a National Geographic Explorer and Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences, Tierney continues work on ocean sunfish and recently collaborated with 60 scientists to publish the first- academic book on sunfishes. Her diversified research, which includes studying impacts of nature imagery on human wellbeing, yielded a project listed as one of TIME Magazine’s Top Inventions of 2014. Most recently, Tierney cofounded an educational non-profit, Around The World in 80 Fabrics, to raise awareness of microplastic pollution from fast fashion and celebrate biodiverse alternatives to petroleum-based fabrics.
To learn more about Tierney Thys’ work, please visit:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/expeditions/experts/tierney-thys/
https://www.ted.com/speakers/tierney_thys
Learn more about Robert Dells work:
https://vimeo.com/336923443
https://act.mit.edu/event/robert-dell-artists-and-archives/
https://engfac.cooper.edu//rdell