Franz was born and grew up in the mountains of southern Bavaria. These surroundings induced an early interest in rock, ice and natural history. While graduating in geology, glaciology and climatology, Franz engaged more and more in serious rock-climbing and mountaineering, climbing major peaks in the Rockies and the Andean Chain, from Mt. Rainier in the North to Aconcagua in the South. The opportunity to take pictures of active volcanoes provided an ideal alibi for various ventures. During his Ph.D. Franz got involved with the polar regions, in particular the Antarctic, and the fascination for this forbidding place has gripped him ever since. During extensive research cruises he spent more than one year on "The Ice" and since 1998 he returns every year to let passengers participate in his knowledge and expertise. Naturally he couldn't let the chance pass to explore the natural surroundings of the ports of embarkation/ disembarkation in South Africa, South America and Australia. In 1999 he was selected as a fellow of the "Explorer's Club" in New York. Since 2000 Franz is based at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia and is involved in marine geological and climatological research in the oceans surrounding the "Red Continent".

Born in Norway, grew up among the Norwegian fjords in "Jølster", moved to "Bergen" in 1991, where she studied law for 5 years. Karin joined the Hurtigruten fleet on the Norwegian coast in 1998, and has worked on various ships as Cruise Director. Since 2001 Karin worked as Chief Purser and she joined the "Voyage of Discovery" concept with M/V Nordnorge in Chile & Antarctica already the first season, in 2002-2003.

Marco was born in Jena, in Germany. His main interests since childhood have been travel and sport. Marco is an accomplished decathlete, mountaineer, and world traveller. His travels have taken him to South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Antarctica, and throughout South America.

Ina has been working as a cruise director at Hurtigruten for more than five years. The last two summer seasons she has been sailing with MS Lofoten doing cruises in the fjords and Lofoten area in Norway. Last winter she was sailing with MS Nordnorge to Antarctica & Chile. Before Ina started to work for the company, she worked as a lecturer on different cruise ships in Norway and as a staff member at Kandersteg International Scout Centre in Switzerland. She has a bachelor in social work and she has also studied marketing management. In her spare time, Ina is often seen sailing her own 36 foot sailboat along the coast of Western Norway.

John is a Canadian who spent his early years in the West Country of England. There he became interested in birds and nature in general at an early age. He studied biology at universities in Canada and ultimately received his Ph.D. from Durham University in the UK. Currently a Research Scientist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, he has been fortunate to be able to pursue his passion for birds and also nature conservation as a career. For over 10 years John has lectured on board expedition cruise ships in the high Arctic and Antarctic. His scientific papers have been published in a wide array of international journals and his seabird images have appeared in magazines and nature books. John lives with Jean, his wife since 1978, on the shores of the Bay of Fundy, in New Brunswick.

Rosita grew up in Wiesbaden, Germany, and has always showed great interest in animals, small or large. After retiring from her professional career in a big company, she focused her ambition on visiting the remote areas of the world and studying the local wildlife. Her travels led her from the kangaroos of Tasmania to the polar bears of Northern Canada. In the summer season of 2001/2002 she came to Antarctica first and fell in love with the Great Southern Continent and its wildlife - in particular the penguins. Since then she has returned every season in various functions on different ships. Rosita loves to deal with people and, in showing and explaining her favourite animals to the passengers, she has found the ideal outlet for her talents. Since 2004, she has shared her passion and enthusiasm for Antarctic wildlife with the passengers of the Hurtigruten vessels and passes on her knowledge about the "little people of the South".

Stefan Kredel grew up in Murnau, in the south of Germany. As a young boy, he took part in bicycle trips through various European countries. Later, he did a number of bicycle trips by himself through India, Nepal, New Zealand, and South America. In 1993, Stefan began studying geology and palaeontology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, which he finished with a diploma in 1999. Various excursions during his university time lead him through Europe and South Africa. There he visited some of the biggest mines world-wide. His thesis and the geological map he had to produce were located in the "Hohe Tauern", part of the high mountains of Austria. In the same year he visited Africa twice, both trips encompassing Ethiopia and Djibouti. He and a colleague were involved in geological fieldwork for a research project under the auspices of the DLR (German Space Agency). His career as a lecturer on board of expedition cruise vessels started in 1998. His first trip was to Antarctica. Since then he has visited this fascinating area every year. His knowledge also extends to the north as well. He even reached the North Pole itself on board a Russian nuclear icebreaker. In the South Pacific, he visited many islands between Japan and Easter Island (Rapa Nui). And not to forget the Amazon, where he sailed up to Iquitos, Peru. In 2001 he moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After study and PhD at the Technical University at Braunschweig, he moved to the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, where Uli worked as a scientific assistant. Then he was assistant professor at the Free University of Berlin. Since 1988, he has lectured in geology at the Universities of Frankfurt, Kiel, Hamburg, Würzburg, Darmstadt, Greifswald and Berlin. His PhD thesis was on the baryte/zinc mine of Meggen, Germany. During his time at Leiden, he was secretary of an international study group dealing with geodynamics in Europe and transatlantic correlation of North American/European geology. During his time in Berlin, he coordinated and operated research programmes on the circum-Mediterranean mountain chains in Spain, France, Greece, and Turkey. He has guided excursions to Iceland, Scandinavia, Bohemia, Carpathians, Alps, French Central Massive, Pyrenees, the Iberian Chain, and the Hoggar Massive in the Central Sahara. On Iceland and the Aegean Islands, he studied active volcanism. Since 1999, he has worked as lecturer on expedition cruises in the Arctic, Antarctic, and South Pacific.

Born in Germany, he was raised in New Zealand and Germany. He conducted his studies at different international universities, reading History, History of Art, and Theology. During that time he did research in Antarctica, doing an inventory of Scott's Hut. Since he graduated from Oxford, Christoph has been working in tourism as a tour-guide for educational tours and occasionally as a lecturer on board cruise vessels.

Born in Switzerland and raised in Germany, Christian went to school in Germany and Chile (Instituto Alemán, Universidad Austral). As a resident of Easter Island since 1976 he has been involved in projects to improve the use of the Rapa Nui National Park, to restore archaeological sites and artefacts, and to improve infrastructure and concepts of tourism on the island. His fields of expertise are anthropology, archaeology, art (Pacific/primitive), and history. He has been lecturing aboard expedition cruise ships in the Arctic, Antarctica and the Pacific on a regular basis since 1993, in the Pacific as expedition leader as well.

Petra has a truly international background; she holds a Swiss passport, was born in Germany, and grew up in Brazil. As a little girl she frequently visited her grandparents who lived far away from civilization in the Sierra de Córdoba in Argentina. It was here that Petra started to develop a passion for wildlife and remote places. She studied zoology and soon found that she was especially interested in marine mammals. Her M.A. thesis was carried out in a natural reserve in Patagonia where she studied the activity and behaviour of southern sea lions. Petra also participated in research projects on Minke whales in the Hebrides, on dolphins in Italy, and sperm whales in Norway. Last year, she worked for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society at its Wildlife Centre in Scotland. Her responsibilities were mainly focussed on environmental education. In her free time Petra likes sailing, tennis, and photography. She also loves to meet new people from all over the world.

A Chilean Born Ornithologist, he received his PhD from Louisiana State University in Zoology/Ornithology. He was formerly Director of Research of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology in California, now currently living in central Chile. Besides being a researcher on neotropical birds, Manuel also leads bird-watching trips through Chile. Manuel publishes regularly in many ornithological journals. For the last 25 years he has been travelling extensively through many countries on ornithological research and explorations.

Was born in Santiago de Chile where he went to school. In 1975 he left to Germany to study biology. After being in Hamburg for seven years, he wrote a thesis in applied botany studying the impact of the grazing of alpacas and lamas in the natural distribution of the native flora of the Chilean highland in Lauca National Park. With his masters degree, he returned to Chile, moved into the city of Arica and worked in the agricultural institute for almost seven years. There he began to study the highest lake of the world (Chungara) describing speciation processes in freshwater fishes belonging to the genus Orestias, the same ones of the Titicaca Lake in the Bolivian and Peruvian highland. After two years of field work, he returned to Germany to finish his PhD on this matter. Since 1990 he has been living in Santiago where he teaches ecology at two private universities and also works as consultant for environmental impact assessments. He also runs a small hatchery of trout in the lake district of southern Chile at Lake Panguipulli. Rudolf is happily married and has two daughters.

Friederike Bronny is an academically qualified geographer, born in 1958. She studied Geography, Geology, and Botany at Bochum University. Her studies focussed on the ecology of the Polar Regions. The title of her degree dissertation was "Marine Ecological Pre-conditions of the Socio-economical Structural Change at the West-coast of Greenland". She has been involved in research in Polar Regions during her studies and ever since. For a number of years, she also worked in city administrations of the Ruhr district as an ecologist. Since the early 1980's, Friederike has taught ecology and worked as lecturer on different expedition cruises, both in the Arctic and Antarctic. The results of her research are published in scientific essays and books, some together with her husband.

Arne studied history at the University of Hamburg. For many years he has been interested in the history of the Polar Regions and in the life of the great explorers - both the noted and the unsung. Arne has long been working in different museums and since 2003 has worked as a lecturer on expedition ships and ice-breakers in the both the Arctic and Antarctic. He lives on an old farm in Southern Germany.

Originally from Chile Paola threw herself into travel, from the world's driest desert to the magical cool of the Antarctic ice. Her passion naturally drove Paola to see what lay beneath the waves. Working as a divemaster permitted her to discover the submarine mysteries of Greece, Egypt and Central America. Paola's adventures can be easily traced by determined hard work in the name of conservation. Many research studies and education projects have benefited from her skills in the field and with the people that interact with the environment. Her main exploits include the plight of the albatross, cetacean photo-ID, coastal clean-up projects, coral reef surveys and local environmetal education. Currently employed as an English teacher in the north of Chile, and runs the Ecology Academy at the local school. Here the next generation are taught to respect and care for the local and global environment.

Having been an enthusiastic sailor since boyhood, Henryk Wolski worked after his university studies as a sailing instructor and skipper and organized concept sailing trips under historical mottos. Another facet of Henryk's life is the love to adventurous expeditions. He was a member of Arved Fuchs's ICESAIL expedition that sailed through the Northwest and the Northeast passage and he took part in an expedition that retraced Sir Ernest Shackleton's famous voyage from the Antarctic continent to South Georgia. He sailed around the notorious Cape Hoorn and became the sixth person in history who circumnavigated the North Pole. Henryk is also following the tracks of the Vikings on rivers across the European continent, retracing some of the old trading routes with a replica Viking ship built for these historic expeditions. Since 2000, Henryk has been working regularly as expedition leader on cruise ships, especially in the Antarctic, the Arctic and the Amazon.

Friedhelm worked as professor for geology at the universities of Hamburg and Münster/Westfalia. He feels at home in both polar regions. During two southern summers he was member of the German GANOVEX-Expeditions V + VI in North Victoria Land (East Antarctica). This is the region where 6 British geologists of the Scott-Expedition 1911/12 had to spend unprepared the dark winter because they missed their returning ship. Andine mountain regions especially of Chile, Peru and Argentina (Patagonia) he visited on several expeditions. In the Arctic he deciphered during 19 expeditions together with his students geological-tectonical structures of Svalbard (West Spitsbergen) and of northern most Greenland. On board of the Russian nuclear ice-breaker Yamal he visited 2005 the Geographic North Pole and islands of the Arctic Franz Josef Land.

Born and raised in southern California, Jim Garlinghouse has always had a burning desire to experience the mountains and glaciers of the Polar Regions. He is a mountain climber with many ascents to his credit, including the tallest peaks in North and South America, Aconcagua and Denali. Jim has made numerous voyages north and south since 1994 in the Antarctic and Arctic regions, including forays to Greenland, Arctic Canada, the Falklands, South Sandwich and South Georgia Islands. With a degree in history, Jim enjoys sharing his knowledge and passion for these special places. His photographs have appeared in such varied publications as Outside, Alaska, Polar Priorities and a reprint edition of Dr Frederick Cook's classic travel account "Through the first Antarctic night". He currently resides in San Diego, California.

Cecilia Malström was born in the north of Sweden. She obtained her Master's Degree in geography at University of Stockholm. As the first female technician of the Amanda Project, South Pole Antarctica, she worked with a team of scientists to build the world's largest telescope. This also made her the first Swedish woman ever to reach the Geographical South Pole. Stationed there for four months, she lived in a tent and endured freezing, -58°C weather. Cecilia continues to travel around giving presentations about her experiences at the South Pole. She is planning to go back to the South Pole to work and then document her work as a technician. Her profession in Sweden is as a lecturer in tourism management at the University in Gavle, where she is working on a project starting a new tourism programme for high schools. In her free time, she loves to drive her 21 sledge dogs with her family in the Swedish mountains.