Richard Wiese

Richard Wiese (born July 13, 1959) is an American explorer, the 39th, 44th and 46th president of The Explorers Club, and executive producer and presenter of the ABC and PBS program, Born to Explore.

Early life and education Wiese was born on Long Island, New York. His father, Richard Wiese Sr., was the first man to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in an aircraft. Richard first climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania at the age of 11. He attended St. Anthony's High School in Smithtown NY, and then Brown University. At Brown, he was a brother in the Phi Psi fraternity, subsequently graduating in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Geology and Biology. He also studied Applied Physiology at Columbia University and completed the USDA Graduate Program in Meteorology.

Expeditions As a teenager, Wiese helped create the first artificial reef in the Long Island Sound in 1977. He has worked in Mexico's Yucatán jungle, placing satellite collars on jaguars. He also climbed and recovered samples from Tanzania's volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai, and also participated in two expeditions to Antarctica to core glaciers for climatological studies.

During the same period, Wiese joined a medical expedition on Mount Everest. He also skied cross-country to the North Pole, and was a member of a 2004 expedition to Yeronisos island in Cyprus, which consisted of an archaeological dig to find the birth temple of Caesarion, son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.

In addition, he led a 2009 expedition to bio-prospect for extremophiles and new life forms in Mount Kilimanjaro's Ngorongoro Crater, resulting in the discovery of 29 species. That expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro also involved placing the first weather station on its slopes, which has been crucial for tracking the effects of global warming.

In 2020, Wiese traveled to the sub-arctic territory of the Yukon in Canada with HRH Prince Albert of Monaco to retrace the last 42-kilometre leg of the 1934 expedition to Telegraph Creek by his grandfather. He also climbed and sampled Tanzania's volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai and participated in two expeditions to Antarctica to core glaciers for climatological studies.

TV and film Wiese appeared in two feature films: in 1981, in a brief scene with Brooke Shields in Endless Love and in 1986, as 'Chris' in Club Paradise. He was host of Exploration with Richard Wiese, a TV series that was syndicated in the U.S. and distributed internationally. He also hosted Hell on Earth, which aired on Discovery in the U.S. and BBC in the UK. He also hosted NOW ( Network of the World) in London with Brian Cox.

Personal life Wiese lives in Weston, Connecticut with his wife and three children.