LIVE from the NYPL: Risk Takers: National Geographic and the New Age of Exploration with Lynsey Addario, Dr. Kenny Broad, James Nachtwey, Dr. Zoltan Takacs, and Ann Curry

In celebration of National Geographic’s 125th anniversary theme, The New Age of Exploration, photographers and explorers reveal the physical, personal, and political perils involved in pushing the boundaries of discovery and bearing witness. The evening will start with presentations from Dr. Kenny Broad, cave diver, environmental anthropologist, and National Geographic Explorer who searches for new freshwater reserves; and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Dr. Zoltan Takacs, a herpetologist/toxinologist who studies the healing potential of toxic venoms. A discussion moderated by Ann Curry will follow about the risks of documenting war, conflict, and human rights issues with award-winning National Geographic photojournalists Lynsey Addario and James Nachtwey.

Presented by RBC.

LYNSEY ADDARIO

Lynsey Addario is an American photojournalist based in London whose work for National Geographic has focused on Iraqis returning to their lives (“Baghdad After the Storm”) and the lives of women in Afghanistan‘ (“Veiled Rebellion”). She began photographing professionally in 1996 for The Buenos Aires Herald in Argentina. Since then, Addario has covered the humanitarian crisis in Syria, the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Islamic world, the war in Iraq, conflicts in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the election of Ahmadinejad in Iran for publications such as The New York Times and Time. In March 2013, she was named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum. She was awarded the Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award in 2011 for “Veiled Rebellion,” and in 2010 was named one of 20 women on Oprah Winfrey's Power List. In 2009, Addario was awarded a MacArthur fellowship Genius grant, and she was part of The New York Times team that won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. She received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

DR. KENNY BROAD
 

Environmental anthropologist and National Geographic’s 2011 Explorer of the Year, Dr. Kenny Broad has participated in extreme scientific and filmmaking expeditions on every continent - from concrete jungles to the deepest caves on the planet - to gather information and samples that shed light on little known environmental and cultural subjects.  Kenny led the Bahamas Blue Hole Project, which appeared as a cover story in National Geographic in 2010, with photos from the late Wes Skiles.  He is a professor at the University of Miami’s (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, is Director of UM’s Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, and also Co-Directs the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University, where he received his PhD in 1999.  Broad received the National Geographic 2006 Emerging Explorer Award and was elected a Fellow National of the Explorers Club in 2009. In 2011, Broad joined Dr. Zoltan Takacs on an expedition to Vietnam to study venomous snakes in the water and on land and to document their use in traditional medicine and the illegal wildlife trade.

JAMES NACHTWEY

Since 1981, James Nachtwey has documented wars and critical social issues worldwide. In Europe, he photographed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, the war in Chechnya, and civil unrest in Northern Ireland.  In Africa, he documented the genocide in Rwanda, famine in Somalia and Sudan and the liberation struggle in South Africa. Nachtwey has covered the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for more then twenty years, as well as the civil wars in Lebanon and most recently the war in Iraq. He is also involved in documenting global health issues in the developing world.  In 2007, Nachtwey received a TED Prize, and for his “wish” he chose to create a global awareness campaign about tuberculosis. Other awards include the Common Wealth Award, the Dan David Prize, the Heinz Family Foundation Award, the Dresden Prize, the Robert Capa Gold Medal, and lifetime achievement awards from both the Overseas Press Club and TIME, Inc. In 2001, “War Photographer,” a documentary film about his life and work, was nominated for an Academy Award.

DR. ZOLTAN TAKACS

Scientist-adventurer and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Dr. Zoltan Takacs develops drug leads from the world's most dangerous venomous animals. He is the co-inventor of the Designer Toxin technology, a toxin-genomics platform developed at the University of Chicago.  He holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Columbia University in studies on cobra venom. He has carried out research on snake venom pharmacology and evolutionary genetics at Rockefeller, Columbia, and Yale Universities. Dr. Takacs has traveled to 138 countries. His field work aims to extract venom and DNA samples from all sorts of venomous animals in the most remote and inhospitable rain forests, coral reefs, and deserts on Earth. Access to these habitats is aided by Takacs' expertise as an aircraft pilot and scuba diver, as well as his ability to live out of a backpack for weeks. His findings have been featured multiple times in National Geographic magazine, on the National Geographic Channel and PBS/NOVA.

ANN CURRY

Ann Curry is the National and International Correspondent/Anchor and TODAY Anchor at Large. Curry reports for all platforms of NBC News. Curry has distinguished herself in global humanitarian reporting, traveling to remote areas of the world for under-reported stories, including conflicts and crises in Darfur, Chad, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As part of TODAY’s Ends of the Earth series, Curry has extensively examined the effects of climate change, traveling to Antarctica and the South Pole, and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Curry has earned seven Emmy Awards, four Golden Mikes, several Associated Press Certificates of Excellence, three Gracie Awards, a Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications, and an award for Excellence in Reporting from the NAACP among many other honors. Curry graduated from the University of Oregon School of Journalism.