Atwood Christopher

Professor of Mongolian History and Chair of the East Asian Department at the University of Pennsylvania. His dissertation and first book Young Mongols and Vigilantes in Inner Mongolia’s Interregnum Decades 1911-1931, examined the nationalist movement in Inner Mongolia. He has appeared on numerous television shows about the Mongol world empire and is author of the Encyclopedia of Mongolia and Mongol empire.

Orna Tsultem

Renowned scholar of Mongolian art and culture. She was born and raised in Mongolia and obtained her PhD degree in Art History from the University of California, Berkeley, where she continues to teach courses in Mongolian and Tibetan arts. She has curated Mongolian art exhibitions internationally in Asia, Europe and the US, with her most recent shows being in Hong Kong and Venice, Italy.

Philip Currie

Dr. Philip John Currie is a Canadian paleontologist and museum curator who helped found theRoyal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta and is now a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Together with his wife Eva, Phil has been to Mongolia since 1998 almost every year, leading both scientific and citizen-science programs, while working closely with the Mongolian Institution of Paleontology.

Gankhuyag Purevochir

Head of the Mongolian Bird Conservation center, one of the leading representatives of the new generation of Mongolian ornithologists. He has worked with raptors of Central Mongolia and Gobi desert for the last decade plus. His research spreads all over Mongolia with more focus on eastern and central parts, as well as most parts of the Gobi.

Leahy Chris

Holds the Gerard A. Bertrand Chair of Natural History and field Ornithology at Mass Audubon. He has been a professional conservationist for more than thirty years and served as a Director of Mass Audubon’s Center for Biological Conservation. Author of the Birdwatchers Companion to the North American Birdlife and Birds of Mongolia books. 

Naranzaya Bayasgalan

Naraa was born in Ulaanbaatar and studied International Relations at the National University of Mongolia. She has 12 years of experience in client services and administration including project coordination, managing complex schedules, organizing events, preparing briefing books and packages, hosting international programs, and training. She is fluent in Russian and English, and currently works as the Vice President of Children International Summer Village’s National Association of Mongolia.

Tsogtbaatar Khishigjav

He began his career as a research staff member at the Institute of Geology of Mongolian Academy of Sciences and currently is the director of Mongolia’s Institute of Paleontology and Geology. Dr. Tsogtbaatar is one of the leading field experts of Mongolian paleontology, having began his work in 1980s.