WINGS Welcomes Fellows Carol Beckwith, Angela Fisher, and Leela Hazzah to New York, October 25 - 29, 2010
On October 25, WINGS joined forces with the historic National Arts Club to co-host a book-signing and presentation by 2010 Wings Fellows and renowned photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher. Their book, Dinka: Legendary Cattle Keepers of Sudan.
On October 29th, former WINGS Board Chair, Maud Welles, hosted a reception for Lion Guardians founder Leela Hazzah. Lion Guardians has been instrumental in lion conservation in southern Kenya, where the lion population has has plummeted. A 2009 Wings WorldQuest Women of Discovery awardee, Leela Hazzah has been working hand and hand with local Maasai warriors who once hunted lions as a coming-of-age rite. In Lion Guardians, the Maasai have become the primary stewards of Kenya's lion population.
Read more and visit the photo gallery!
Female polar explorers revisit tragic race to South Pole
NEW YORK - A century has passed since the race to be the first to reach the South Pole pitted Englishman Robert Falcon Scott against Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Only one man came back alive. WINGS Fellows, Ann Bancroft, Liv Arnesen and Felicity Aston talk about the famous race and exploring the poles today. Read MSNBC Story
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Download the Press Packet with Awardee Images
2010 International Women of Discovery Awards
Honorary Co-Chairs: Uma Thurman & Ted Janulis
Special Guests: David Rothenberg, visionary musician and author of the recently released Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound. Mira Nair, film director of Vanity Fair and The Namesake
WHAT: The 8th annual Women of Discovery Awards, honoring visionary women in exploration. Among the five 2010 awardees—who will be honored at a gala event on April 15, 2010—are pioneers in the elucidation of plant communication and the documentation of ancient traditions, which are rapidly vanishing in the face of the modern world.
WHEN & WHERE: Thursday, April 15, 2010 6:30–10:30 p.m.
WHERE: Tribeca Rooftop, 2 Debrosses Street, NYC
THE 2010 AWARD WINNERS IN BRIEF
WWQ Lifetime Achievement Award:
Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher
For more than three decades, Beckwith and Fisher have documented the people, cultures, and traditional ceremonies of the African continent. Collectively, they have published numerous articles and books, including the acclaimed two-volume African Ceremonies (Harry N. Abrams, 2002), and their stunning images have been exhibited at museums and galleries around the world.
Susan Dudley
An Associate Professor of Biology at McMaster University, Canadian botanist Susan Dudley has discovered that even plants have a social life. Her breakthrough research on a beach weed known as the Great Lakes sea rocket has revealed that plants are capable of making animal-like decisions—distinguishing between related and unrelated plant species.
Alexandra Morton
A pioneer in the study of orca (killer whale) and dolphin migration and communication, Alexandra Morton has risked her own life to document the devastating impact of fish-farming—particularly of salmon—on the wild marine populations of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Kate Harris
Canadian glaciologist, Kate Harris has focused her attention on desert environments akin to what scientists are likely to find on Mars and on the fragile ecology of glaciers, which play a critical role in Earth’s climate exchange. An avid cyclist, she has biked most of the Silk Road, exploring the wildest back roads and remotest communities en route from Asia to Europe.
In addition to the five 2010 Awardees, Wings WorldQuest will be honoring seven women explorers as “Fellows” in recognition their outstanding discoveries.
ABOUT THE 2010 WINGS WORLDQUEST™ FELLOWS
Hessel Professor of Biology at Harvard University and Curator of Lepidoptera at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Naomi Pierce discovered that ants can communication with caterpillars using electrical vibrations, work for which she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1988.
Botanist Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of Arboretum America: A Philosophy of the Forest, has combined her interests in medicine and botany to further our understanding of plants and trees as “chemical factories,” which have the capacity to modify chemical output to repel predators and attract pollinators.
Director of the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research Institute astronomer Jill Tarter is a recent recipient of the prestigious TED Award, which was bestowed on her for her decades-long search for life in the universe using radio signals and receivers.
An anthropologist renowned for her groundbreaking work on human skin and environmental adaptation,
Nina Jablonski currently Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University.
Rosemarie Keough is the co-author/photographer (with husband Pat) of the acclaimed Antarctica, an award-winning limited edition book that portrays the White Continent on a monumental scale never before seen.
As director of the Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media Program at the University of New Mexico, Andrea Polli uses art and digital media to help explain forces in the natural world. She is currently collaborating with atmospheric scientists to develop systems for understanding storm and climate through sound.
A pioneer in interspecies communication, Aimee Morgana has undertaken groundbreaking research with her partner (and parrot), N’Kisi, who possesses a vocabulary exceeding 1,500 words and who is working on his first book.
ABOUT WINGS WORLDQUEST™
WINGS WorldQuest™ (wingsworldquest.org) is the foremost international organization dedicated to supporting and recognizing visionary women who are advancing scientific inquiry and environmental conservation. Since its founding in 2003, WINGS has sponsored more than 40 women on expeditions, enabling them to carry out necessary research often at a pivotal point in their careers. In addition, WINGS is home to a web-based Education & Resource Center, which features the discoveries of its international Fellows including novel classroom tools and training materials for teachers. The website also serves as a portal to a virtual community for intellectual exchange among women explorers. WINGS Worldquest™ is pleased to schedule interviews with honorees for accredited national and international media.
