Richard Wiese
| Richard Wiese | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Richard Wiese July 13, 1959 Long Island, New York, United States |
| Occupation | Explorer, host, producer, author |
Richard Wiese (born July 13, 1959), an explorer, is the author of the guidebook, Born to Explore: How to Be a Backyard Adventurer.[1] In 2002 he was the youngest man to become president of the Explorers Club.
He is the host and executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning television series Born to Explore with Richard Wiese, which debuted September 3, 2011 and airs weekly on ABC. Its third season of half-hour episodes premiered October 5, 2013.
Personal life
Wiese was born in Long Island, New York. His father, Richard Wiese, Sr., was the first man to solo the Pacific Ocean in an aircraft. Richard's first substantial adventure was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania at the age of 11. He attended St. Anthony's High School in Smithtown, New York, and then Brown University, 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.
Wiese lives in Weston, Connecticut.
Expeditions
In early 2002, he became president of The Explorers Club - the youngest in the organization's history. During his four-year term, he worked in Mexico's Yucatán jungle placing satellite collars on jaguars. .He also climbed and sampled Tanzania's volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai .and participated in two expeditions to Antarctica to core glaciers for climatological studies..
During the same period, Wiese was a member of the largest medical expedition on Mount Everest. He also cross-country skied to the North Pole . and was a member of the 2004 Yeronisos Island expedition in Cyprus. .In addition, he led an expedition to bio-prospect for extremophiles and new life forms in Mount Kilimanjaro's Ngorongoro Crater, resulting in the discovery of 29 new life forms.. 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.[2]
Media
Television series
"Born to Explore with Richard Wiese" is one of six original half-hour HD programs that form the Litton Weekend Adventure block of programming airing on Saturday mornings on ABC stations in the United States. The series premiered Saturday, September 3, 2011. As of May 2014, it is airing its third season of 26 half-hour episodes.
In Season 1 (2011–12), it won the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Exploration and Journalism. in Season 2 and again in season 3, it won the Parents’ Choice Gold Award for teens 13-16. In season 2 it won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Single Camera Photography.
For Season 1, the production team filmed in Botswana, Uganda, Iceland, England, Morocco, Australia, Canada, Hawaii, and North Carolina. For Season 2, they filmed in Chile, Cyprus, South Africa, Namibia, India, British Columbia, and South Dakota. Season 3 locations included Scotland, Indonesia, India, South Africa, Namibia, Arizona, Maine and New York City.
TV & Film
Wiese appeared in two feature films: in 1982, in a brief love 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.
Wiese is the author of the guidebook, Born to Explore: How to Be a Backyard Adventurer., published by Harper in 2009.[1] According to WorldCat the book is held in 116 libraries.[3]
References
- 1 2 Wiese, Richard. "Born to Explore: How to Be a Backyard Adventurer". Amazon.com. Amazon.com. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
- ↑ "Explorer Richard Wiese Takes Kilimanjaro With the Epson P-7000 Multimedia Storage Viewer". Epson Newsroom. Epson America. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ↑ WorldCat book entry