Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris Tour Staff
Cheesemans Ecology Safaris carefully selects leaders who are tops in their field to insure that your experience is the best it can be. We also provide a complete support staff on our larger expedtions, such as to Antarctica and the Arctic. The staff on your expedition can include some of the professionals listed below, your trip itinerary contains the staff list.
 Vidar Bakken has worked as a seabird scientist extensively during his employment of 14 years at the Norwegian Polar Institute. He brings a thorough knowledge of Svalbard wildlife to our cruise.
Staff for the Arctic.
 
Tim and Pauline Carr have spent the last 14 years on South Georgia working for the South Georgia Museum, first as Custodians and then as Curators. Before becoming the sole resident human population on South Georgia, they spent 25 years circumnavigating the globe in Curlew, a 28-foot, engineless wooden sailboat, built in 1898. Arriving at South Georgia in 1992, the Carrs were inspired by this incredible island and wrote the book Antarctic Oasis in 1998. In addition to their sailing exploits around the island, they have explored inland extensively whilst camping in tents, bivouacs and snow holes. Tim and Pauline are delightful personalities, and they bring to our voyage an unparalleled intimate knowledge of this very special and remote island.
Staff for South Georgia.
  Les Chibana has led trips for Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris throughout the Hawaiian Islands including an incredible visit to Midway Atoll. Before moving to Hawaii, Les was a volunteer bird-bander at the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory's Coyote Creek Field Station for many years and taught birding classes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. His bird guiding experiences have taken him to many amazing birding locations: Costa Rica, Alaska, Monterey Bay pelagic trips, California's Kern River Valley and Plateau, Yuba Pass and Sierra Valley, the Lower Klamath Basin and Southeast Arizona. Les is also an avid bird photographer.
Staff for Antarctica.
 Buff Corsi is a professional videographer with lots of exprerience giving seminars on videography during over eight Antarctic expeditions. She has also produced both the ship's log and video documentary that is available to all participants. Buff pursued her lifelong interest in biology for many years at the California Academy of Sciences as head of their travel program. Always a photographer, she has come to love the creative process of video editing.
Staff for Antarctica.
 Carter Cox has led Zodiac operations for many of our previous Cheesemans' Antarctic expeditions without mishap and is an excellent operations manager. When the weather gets rough, trust Carter to stay in control. Carter is one of Doug Cheesemans' former students in biology, zoology and ecology. He is a contractor when at home in Northern California.
Staff for Antarctica.
 Tim Davis has been a self-employed professional photographer for more than twenty-eight years, now working in wildlife photography after spending his
formative years photographing sports, annual reports and advertising
projects. His wildlife work has appeared in diverse publications from
National and International Wildlife, Terre Sauvage, Wildlife Conservation
and BBC Wildlife to Sports Illustrated, Outside and Time. Recent animal and
wildlife advertising work includes Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Mutual
of Omaha and others. He has traveled extensively on all seven continents in
pursuit of wildlife stock images, marketed worldwide through his various
agents. He has received a top award in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the
Year awards and was co-author of Popular Photography's Nature Column with
his wife and partner, Renee Lynn. Tim and Renee were also featured on Wild
Discovery of the Discovery Channel. See a sampling of his work on his website. He spent a month photographing an Emperor Penguin colony on the Antarctic continent. Tim has been leading Antarctic adventures with us since 1994.
Staff for South Georgia and the Arctic.
 Suzi Eszterhas currently teaches photography workshops on the coast of California and will assist in photography sessions during our Antarctica Expedition. Suzi has photographed
wildlife in various remote regions of the earth, including Antarctica,
Falklands, East Africa, Alaska, Manitoba, British Columbia, and California.
Her images have been widely published. She works for the Mara Conservancy in
the Masai Mara during several months of the year and leads photo safaris to
Africa. She has received very high reviews from our travelers for
her excellent photo assistance.
Staff for Antarctica.
 Dr. Art Ford retired from a career with the U.S. Geological Survey doing geological research in polar and alpine regions. He earned his PhD degree at the University of Washington (Seattle) for the first geological study of one of the active, high volcanoes of the Cascades Range of Washington state (Glacier Peak), after which he taught geology for two years at San Diego State College. In 1960 he joined the USGS to lead expeditions that explored mountains near the South Pole (Thiel Mountains). In his many years of Antarctic research he led or participated in 13 expeditions to the Pensacola Mountains; the Lassiter Coast of the southern Antarctic Peninsula; the Shackleton Range (as exchange scientist on the 22nd Soviet Antarctic Expedition, in 1977); the Black Coast of the central Antarctic Peninsula (a 1986 joint USGS-British Antarctic Survey expedition); and was a geologist on the Deep-Sea Drilling Project vessel Glomar Challenger’s first explorations of Antarctic sea floors, of the Ross Sea, in 1972. His 35 years of research in Antarctica and many parts of Alaska produced nearly 200 maps and reports, including the chapter Antarctica in Encyclopædia Britannica. He was awarded the American Polar Medal and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the Explorers Club, and the Geological Society of America.
Staff for Antarctica.
 Dr. Steve Henry and Linda Henry have been the ship's Doctor and Nurse for eight polar expeditions with Cheesemans Ecology Safaris. Steve is semi-retired after a long career with Kaiser in San Jose, California. Linda is a former surgical nurse. They both have a long-standing interest in wilderness medicine.
Staff for Antarctica.
 Tom Murphy founded Wilderness Photography Expeditions in 1986, and teaches a well-known and respected photography seminar series primarily in Yellowstone National Parkon as explained on his website. Tom will teach photography sessions on ship and ashore to help you bring your wildlife photography to new levels of excellence. He is the author of several books including The Light of Spring: The Seasons of Yellowstone. He has also been featured in a PBS Nature series program, Chistmas in Yellowstone.
Staff for South Georgia.
 Rod and Marlene Planck operate a natural history photographic business. Rod has been a professional nature photographer for over twenty years, with Marlene as manager of the business. Rod’s images have appeared in Audubon, Sierra, National Wildlife, Natural History, Backpacker, Birder’s World, Ranger Rick and Photo Life. His images have appeared also in numerous calendars, textbooks and advertising layouts. Together, Rod and Marlene conduct a popular series of week-long workshops around the country for nature photographers of all skill levels described on their website. Rod and Marlene live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where Rod does a lot of his spectacular photography. It is near to many of the forests, bogs, and lakeshores that Rod has photographed over the years and has come to know and love. They have been on our Antarctica staff for over ten years. In addition to Marlene and Rod’s wide-ranging knowledge of natural history and photography, they bring a contagious enthusiasm for the seabirds we’ll encounter on our Southern Ocean charters.
Staff for South Georgia and Antarctica.
 Craig Poore, our trip historian, is a new addition to the staff, but a
veteran of several Antarctica expeditions. He will lecture on Southern
Ocean history, including early exploration, the heroic age and the more
recent conflict in the Falklands/Malvinas. On board he'll be on deck
watching for cetaceans and heading up our conservation fund raiser. On
shore he assists with Zodiac logistics. Craig travels a lot for his
full-time job in the software industry and is an expert on packing, as well
as on Southern Ocean history. He has authored an excellent polar packing
list and (in the spirit of Amundsen) has put a lot of study into packing a
bag for Antarctica that is complete, while still being reasonably light and
manageable.
Staff for Antarctica.
 Edward Rooks is a professional wildlife artist with a keen interest in nature. He excels in helping you uncover your unknown artistic talent if you choose to join his expedition workshops. A naturalist par excellence with
an artist's eye, he teaches drawing workshops both during days at sea
and onshore. Edward has led wonderful tours for us in the past to his native Trinidad
where he grew up beside the sea.
Staff for Antarctica.
Rinie Van Meurs has led hundreds of expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctica and has logged more time as an expedition leader and naturalist guide in Spitsbergen than anyone else. He is a leading authority on the wildlife of Spitsbergen, and his field lectures and presentations will leave you with an excellent understanding of the flora, fauna and history of this extraordinary arctic region. Rinie studied forestry and civil engineering before finding his passions for travel, wildlife and photography. He has traveled the world privately ‹once spending a year in the Falkland Islands photographing and observing seabirds and wildlife‹and has been an expedition leader in polar regions for more than 10 years. He has published 2 books of photography including his latest, Polar Odyssey, a photographic documentation of the polar regions in which he has traveled. A native of Holland, Rinie now lives in Krakow, Poland.
Staff for the Arctic.
 Michael Wald has spent his life sharing the wonders of the natural world with others, both as an educator and as a wilderness guide. He has guided wilderness trips in his home state of Alaska since 1997 and owns Arctic Wild, a Fairbanks-based wilderness guiding company. When not at work guiding, Michael is likely to be found exploring the wilds with his wife and son.
Staff for the Arctic.
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