Expedition Teams Onboard MS Fram for your Antarctica Voyage in 2017/18

Tessa Van Drie
From: The Netherlands
Expedition Leader

Line Overgaard
From: Norway
Expedition Leader

Pål Ranheim
From: Norway
Assistant Expedition Leader

Tessa, from the Netherlands, finished her 1-year course as Arctic Nature Guide, hosted at Spitsbergen, Norway, in June 2011. She has her master degree in Physical Geography from the University in Utrecht. After working for four years in an office she decided to travel and do voluntary work for two years in Central- and South-America. She enjoyed traveling so much that she got a job as a tour leader for a Dutch company. For three years she guided Dutch groups through several countries in Central- and South-America. Now she is living in Norway and is really enjoying the outdoor life like cross country skiing, kayak paddling and hiking in the mountains. Since 2011 Tessa works as a lecturer on board FRAM, both in the Antarctica and the Arctic.

Line started working for Hurtigruten in 2001 as a crew member. She worked on several ships on the spectacular Norwegian Coast before joining Fram in 2008. Line is Norwegian and grew up in the small settlement Klæbu outside Trondheim. She uses every chance she gets to travel. She has been backpacking in Asia, South America, Australia and Africa. Line enjoys outdoor activities like cross-country skiing, kayaking, snowboarding, hiking and her newest passion, climbing. Her favourite expeditions have been the 16-day ski expeditions over Spitsbergen`s snow-covered glaciers, the 8-day hike on the Arctic Circle Trail in Greenland, and kayaking on the rivers of Nepal. She completed the Arctic Nature Guide study program in 2010 in Spitsbergen.

Pål grew up in Tromsø, northern Norway, and loves all outdoor activities. His fascination for Arctic nature led Pål to study geography at NTNU, Trondheim. After finishing his studies and teacher training, he moved to the North Cape at the top of Norway, to teach Earth Science and Social Science at an upper secondary school. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking around Northern Norway. He’s also a certified hiking guide in DNT , has worked as a guide in the North Cape and was an active member of the local climbing club. In 2014, Pål travelled to Nepal to work as a volunteer in an outreach school project in the countryside. After that, Pål got a job at the remote Jan Mayen meteorological station. Now in his new role as an assistant expedition leader with Hurtigruten, Pål looks forward to sharing his experiences and knowledge with fellow travellers.

Steffen Biersack
From: Germany
Assistant Expedition Leader

Regina Gehmlich
From: Germany
Assistant Expedition Leader

Helga Kristiansen
From: Norway
Assistant Expedition Leader

German geologist, born and raised in Berlin, where he spent his "first life" with the Berlin Criminal investigation Department. Feeling the urge to change he resigned and went to university to study Geology. Before joining Hurtigruten, he has gained a long experience as a field trip guide in many European countries, Northern America and Southern Africa. In his opinion, geology and the complex "System Earth" is a most intriguing and important subject. So his particular aim is to convey this fascination of geology to a wider public. For this purpose he offers a wide range of lectures, dealing with our planet's phenomena.

As an educated mineralogist (geochemist) Regina Gehmlich has comprehensive knowledge about geological processes and geoscientific research. She has always been interested in wildlife and environmental protection, gathering a deep insight into the functionality of ecosystems and the interdependencies of living and non living nature. Every stay in fascinating nature has always been a source of power and recreation for Regina, and she likes sharing this fascination with others. For the past years, Regina has written texts on nature impressions from different places of the earth and presented them on small stage performances.Thus, she is able to provide the passengers with a balanced mixture of information and divertisement and would love to contribute in making their journey the great experience they are looking for.

Helga Bårdsdatter Kristiansen is a biologist and has lived in Longyearbyen, Svalbard since 2013. Biology studies in Oslo brought her to Svalbard for the first time in 2011, when she fell in love with the island. Helga loves dogs, the outdoors, and the wild and barren landscape of the Arctic island. She is originally from Telemark, Norway, a place full of forests, and has always had a fascination for nature. She went to agriculture high school, where she learned how to use a chain saw and drive a tractor. She worked as a guide for hiking groups, snow mobile tours and city tours before becoming a manager for Camp Barentz. When Helga grew tired that environmental problems in the Arctic were not being solved quickly enough, she decided to enter into politics as a green politician. She is now an elected official in the local government of Longyearbyen.

Bob Rowland
From: US
Lecturer Glaciology / Geochemist

Dan Busby
From: Canada
Lecturer Biology / ornithology

Simon Delaney
From: UK
Lecturer Biology / Ornithology

Growing up, Bob always wanted to be outdoors. He chose geology as it met that goal both academically and professionally. As an under-graduate, he started working on oceanographic expeditions, traversing the Pacific and Indian Oceans. While in the US Army, he spent two summers in Antarctica and two in Greenland, studying engineering properties of snow and sea ice. The fieldwork for his PhD was conducted along the coast of Alaska and offshore in the Northern Bering Sea. In his 20 years with the US Geological Survey, he has been involved in research projects that have taken him from Indonesia to the Ivory Coast, and have encompassed pollution studies, environmental impact surveys plus project management and the UN Law of the Sea. Since retiring, Bob has been circumnavigating the globe, taking on consulting jobs in Indonesia and New Zealand. For the last few years, Bob has been a consultant to the USGS on Law of the Sea issues.

Dan was born and raised in small towns of the Canadian prairies and now lives in central Canada. He holds a M.Sc. in ornithology. During his 30 years as a wildlife biologist with Canada’s national government, he worked on a wide variety of research and conservation activities, including the effects of toxic chemicals on birds, population monitoring, avian diseases, environmental assessment, species at risk and the effect of wind power developments on birds. He now enjoys his longtime hobby of bird photography and is a frequent speaker on bird photography and bird conservation topics.

Simon grew up on the English south coast where he developed a passion for nature, particularly birds. A degree in geography was followed by three expeditions to the Himalayas to study bird migration, and two-and-a-half years on the Sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia working with albatrosses, penguins and fur seals. Subsequent work with three nature conservation organisations involved a move to the Netherlands, where he now lives with his family in a house overlooking the floodplain of the River Rhine. Simon has been published widely, including authoring a prize-winning book in 2010. These days, he is a consultant, specialising in biodiversity conservation and writing as well as taking on exciting opportunities such as his collaboration with Hurtigruten.

Chris Croxson
From: UK
Lecturer Biology / Mammals

Delphin Ruche
From: France
Lecturer Biology / Mammals

Miguel Rodríguez-Gironés
From: Spain
Lecturer Biology / Mammals

Chris completed his Master’s degree in Marine Biology at the National Oceanography Centre (Southampton University in the UK), graduating with first-class honours. He is a very experienced cruise lecturer/guide on the marine fauna of the areas being visited, and associated ecosystems/oceanographic features. He has contributed to 120 voyages in the last 9 years around all 7 continents including a great deal of exposure to the Arctic and both the peninsula regions of Antarctica and the Ross Sea region. His talks seek to enhance expedition guests ’ enjoyment by creating a greater awareness and appreciation of the marine world that surrounds them.

As a wildlife biologist, Delphin has been using science as a passport to study and work around the world. This often brought him to mountainous and high-latitude regions, like Northern Canada where he completed his M.Sc., Antarctica where he overwintered at age 21, or the Ethiopian Highlands where he helped promote a national park. He stayed several years in the USA, teaching at UCLA and participating in various nature conservation projects throughout the country. Meanwhile, he setup and ran a consulting company specialized in radar ornithology. Every summer since 2011, Delphin studies seabirds in Svalbard for the Norwegian Polar Institute, but during the Arctic winter, he works as a northern lights guide in Northern Norway, where he now lives.

Migue Rodríguez-Gironés’ longing for unspoiled environments and face-to-face encounters with Nature made him quit research in Theoretical Physics and start a new career in Behavioural Ecology. This switch allowed him to climb 30 meter high palm trees in the Bolivian rain forest, observe quarrelsome booby chicks in a tiny island off the Mexican Pacific coast, wash elephant dung in Sri Lanka, follow arboreal marsupials in Patagonia and study penguins in Deception Island. He loves sailing and hiking and in his next life he will be a bohemian fiction writer and live in a small wooden ship with no fixed mooring. In the meanwhile, Miguel is a researcher at the Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, Spain, where he studies pollination ecology and insect colour vision. He has taught summer and graduate courses on Animal Behaviour, Biological Materials and Vision Ecology.

Verena Meraldi
From: Mexico
Lecturer Biology

Rudolf Thomann
From: Chile
Lecturer Biology / Mammals

Rob Scott
From: UK
Lecturer Biology

Verena is a Mexican-Swiss biologist from Mexico City, where she studied at the National University (UNAM) until 1998. In 2002, she received her PhD in Immunology from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and then worked for a year as a research assistant at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Her passion for travelling, hiking and observing wildlife has taken her to many places in Guatemala, Belize, Cuba, Scandinavia, Corsica and several other European destinations. She also took a six-month camping trip with her husband through Canada, the US and Mexico in 2003. Verena loves photography and has exhibited her landscape photographs several times in Switzerland. She has been working as a lecturer in Antarctica on board MS Fram since 2008 and currently lives in Switzerland with her husband and two young children.

Born and raised in Chile, Rudolf studied biology in the city of Hamburg. Since 1990, back in Chile, he spent around 7 years in the desert in the north of the country, where he carried out scientific work with freshwater fishes of the high Andes lakes and rivers of the altiplano. He has always had a passion for fishes, and he ran a fish farm for about 7 years in the Lake District around Panguipulli. He has been teaching ecology and flora and fauna lessons at the university for more than 15 years. As an entuthiastic ecologist he was in charge for some time of the oldest Chilean environmental NGO. He visited Antarctica for the first time in 1994 and with Hurtigruten since 2002. The flame of the first visit is still awake.

Robert Scott has a B.Sc. in Biology and an M.Sc. in Ecology. He spent three years working for British Antarctic Survey on South Georgia, living amongst fur seals and studying various species of albatross. He then enjoyed two years managing a small island nature reserve in Seychelles, followed by 20 years working for several wildlife conservation organisations in Britain, from the Shetland Islands to the south coast of England. Currently, Rob is responsible for 19 km of internationally important wildlife sites on the east coast of England. He is new to Hurtigruten and desperately trying to balance work with adventure.

Manuel Marin
From: USA
Lecturer Biology / Ornithology

Elena Stautzebach
From: Austria
Lecturer Biology

Stian Aadland
From: Norway
Lecturer / kayaking / hiking

Manuel Marin received his PhD in zoology and ornithology from Louisiana State University. He was formerly Curator and Director of Research of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology in California, and is currently living in the countryside in central Chile, where doesa lot of ornithological research. As a researcher on neotropical birds, Manuel is one of the National Geographic Society Grantee. For over 30 years he has been travelling extensively through many countries on ornithological research and explorations, and he publishes regularly in many ornithological journals.. Manuel have been working for the Hurtigruten explorer department since its conception for well over a decade in both Artic and Antarctic regions.

Elena is currently taking the Arctic Nature Guide program on Svalbard, Norway. She grew up in Austria where she got her Master's degree in Meteorology in 2013. She fell in love with glaciated areas a long time ago and focused on polar research during her studies. After taking part in different scientific expeditions in Austria, Siberia, France and on Svalbard, she successfully applied for the position of meteorologist and sea ice physicist at the German research station Neumayer in Antarctica, where she lived and worked for 14 months. Whenever she has the possibility, she likes to go on long bike trips in different countries or enjoys the mountains in her home country.

Stian has been an adventurer since the age of two, when he first tried flying. His first love was an old snowboard that he used all his savings to buy. Stian’s love for snowboarding grew very fast and ended up taking him all over the world in search of the perfect snow. At 31, he finally found his snowboarding paradise…in the faraway mountains of Svalbard, where he spends all his time during winter. Stian plans to live in Longyearbyen for the next 29 years, after which he intends to retire to Hawaii. Stian lives for adventure. He is also educated as an Arctic Nature Guide from the University of Svalbard. He works full-time as an expedition guide in the mountains of Svalbard in the High Arctic and also with the penguins in Antarctica. When he is not onboard MS Fram, he leads snowmobile trips, long ski expeditions and mountain skiing trips to the high mountains all over Svalbard. If you have any questions about hiking, glacier walks or other activities, feel free to ask him.

Dave Fletcher
From: UK
Lecturer History

Rachel Morgan
From: UK
Lecturer Biology

Atle Gundersen
From: Norway
Kayak instructor

Dave spent 47 Years in the Antarctic, completing 4 winters and 44 summers. Coming South as a Dog Driver and Scientist for the British Antarctic Survey. He became Base Commander on Several Stations. Leaving the BAS in 1984 he wintered with the Indian Antarctic Division. Then starting a small company offering support to various Polar Organisations, among which is Students on Ice and various Tourist Companies. He has been Expedition Leader for 17 Years,and has been honoured with the Polar Medal, The Fuchs Medal and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

From the UK, Rachel has been professionally involved in the Antarctic region for the last 26 years. Until recently, she was director of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and was instrumental in protecting historic sites on the Antarctic Peninsula and in the Ross Sea. Before that, she looked after the historic photographic collections at the Royal Geographical Society and spent eighteen months at Rothera Station in Antarctica as a field guide for the British Antarctic Survey. She now lectures on the history of Antarctic exploration and sits on the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee.

Atle grew up in the Stavanger, close to the Norwegian fjords. He started exploring the fjords and the coastline as a teenager, and later on he found the passion of sea kayaking. Atle is an experienced kayaker with BCU4* Leader Award/BCU5*Trainee (BCU=British Canoe Union) and 5 star leader/coach (veileder) issued by NPF (Norwegian Paddle Association). Atle have conducted and led numerous expeditions in various waters and conditions. He has 10 years of guiding experience, and have been a kayak instructor since 2008. Gundersen is an outdoor adventurer, and loves exploring nature and testing his own limits in kayak, with skies, kite and so on. Atle Gundersen is managing director of the Norwegian company, FjordEvents, organizing private adventure sail cruises, for small groups, in the Norwegian fjords. The company also do short speedboat safari trips with RIB-boats.

Adrian Rubio
From: Chile / Germany
Activity / History

Tom Warmholts
From: The Netherlands
Activity / History

Klaus Kiesewetter
From: Germany
Activity / History

Adrian Rubio is a Chilean-German tour guide and business owner. He spent his childhood in Germany and later moved to Chile. After a few years studying history, he changed his major to Adventure Tourism and studied in Santiago de Chile. After graduating, he moved to Beijing, China where he studied Mandarin and Chinese culture. Adrian then spent 10 years as a tour guide, taking travellers through Chile and Patagonia. Three years ago, he moved to Puerto Natales in Patagonia, where he opened a small hostel. We are excited to welcome Adrian to Hurtigruten’s Explorer team as a history lecturer for the Antarctic area.

Tom was born in the Netherlands and grew up in the country side where his love for nature began. He decided to study International Tourism in Paris to learn French. During his course and personal time, he worked in several countries to gain experience in the tourism industry and practice his language skills. He worked in China, Germany, France and England and traveled to many others on all 7 continents. After having been a guide in Iceland, his fascination for the polar regions arose. Greenland was his next destination where he first got in touch with Hurtigruten, while organizing a landing for the passengers. Soon after, he was offered an internship in Antarctica where he guided on several Expeditions on MS Fram.

Klaus Kiesewetter is born in Germany but has lived most of his life in the Northern countries specially on the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Denmark . He studied Nordic history, language and literature in Reykjavik and Ålborg. He has translated some of the Islandic sagas to German. As freelancer-journalist he produced different tv-documentaries, travel information films and written numerous articlkes in magazines and newspapers about travel in Polar regions. For the last four years he has been living very close to the Baltic sea in Lithuania.

Therese Hornricht
From: Switzerland
Lecturer / General Naturalist

Liselotte Kahrs
From: Norway
Lecturer

Yibo Li
From: China
Expedition member

Therese fell in love with the polar regions several years ago, when she visited Svalbard for the first time. She has a Master’s degree in Media and Communication from Switzerland and spent a year living in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, while she completed her Arctic Nature Guide education and began to work on ships. Therese has travelled extensively in Scandinavia, and spent half a year in Sweden where she worked on a husky farm. During the summer of 2011, Therese worked on Svalbard as a trekking guide and spent three months living in tents. Last winter, she worked as a snowmobile guide in Lapland, Sweden. Her fascination with snow and ice brought her to Falklands, South Georgia and to the seventh continent, Antarctica. Back home in Switzerland, Therese enjoys the Alps all year round, be it hiking, skiing, snowboarding or even snowshoeing. She is now looking forward to sharing all her knowledge and passion for the polar regions with her guests.

Liselotte Kahrs was born in Bergen, Norway. For the past few years she has been on the move, exploring new places. She obtained her teacher´s certificate in Outdoor Education in 2013, where part of her studies took place in Svalbard. There she completed training as an Arctic Nature Guide. She has been working as a sea kayak guide and instructor since 2009. Liselotte has spent quality time kayaking on the Norwegian fjords, the coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean down in Chile as well as up in British Colombia. XX

Yibo Li was born in Beijing, China and moved to California when he was young. He is passionate about the ocean, boats and fish. He has over 10 years of experience with the Pacific Ocean. After he obtained his USCG 100T Captain’s licence, he became a sport fishing charter captain and professional angler. He has won several fishing tournaments and he won the biggest yellowtail tournament in southern California with a record-breaking finish in 2015. He also obtained his hunting and firearm safety certificates in 2012. Yibo loves the outdoors and wildlife and explored Guadalupe Island - the home of the white sharks - this December.

Camille Seaman
From: USA
Photographer

Chelsea Claus
From: USA
Photographer

Camille Seaman strongly believes in capturing photographs that articulate that humans are not separate from nature. She is a Shinnecock Indian (a small fishing tribe located on the Eastern tip of Long Island NY) living in Northern California. Her photographs have been featured in prestigious publications, including National Geographic and TIME magazine. Seaman has a bachelor’s degree in the fine arts photography from the State University of New York at Purchase.

Chelsea photographer originally from California, USA. She has worked in the photography industry since 2009 after graduating from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. Some of her notable work has been published in Girl Gone International online magazine. She also shot the cover of Lessons from the Mountain: What I Learned from Erin Walton by Mary McDonough a “tell-all” book about the American classic television show 'The Waltons'. She has lived in Lofoten, Norway in pursuit of the photographable landscapes and currently resides in Strabourg, France. She is knowledgeable about camera equipment and photography in general, so feel free to ask her any questions or just simply say hello!