Stephanie Schwabe

Stephanie Jutta Schwabe (born 1 January 1957 in Germany) is a geomicrobiologist. She completed a Ph.D. in the biogeochemical investigation of caves within the Bahamian carbonate platforms. She is an expert geologic diver mostly in Bahamian blues holes, though her experience extends to expeditions in U.S. waters. Diver International named her one of the top cave 40 divers in the world in 1997.

Schwabe earned a degree in law at the University of Queensland with a focus on international environmental law in 2003.

Schwabe is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London. She was named a NASA fellow in exobiology for her discovery of a unique life system found only in the black fresh water holes in the Bahamas, and was featured in the book titled Women of Discovery: A Celebration of Intrepid Women Who Explored the World.

In 2004, Schwabe was given the Women of Discovery Award for Courage by Wings WorldQuest. Since that time, she has participated in eighteen scientific expeditions to the Bahamas, as subjects for masters and doctoral research. She has participated in a number of film expeditions. In 2000, Schwabe's discovery quest led her to the Black Hole of Andros, Bahamas.

Schwabe is the founder and director of the Rob Palmer Blues Holes Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

Schwabe also describes the Third Man phenomenon that occurred to her while lost as she was solo diving in a cave.

Her husband, British diving pioneer Rob Palmer, died on a pleasure dive in the Red Sea in 1997.