Dr. Wade Davis
Writer and Anthropologist
Dr. Davis is a writer, photographer and filmmaker whose work has taken him to the Amazon, Tibet, Africa, Australia, Polynesia, and the Arctic. A National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence from 2000 to 2013, he is currently professor of anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of twenty-three books, including One River, The Wayfinders, and Into the Silence, winner of the 2012 Samuel Johnson Prize for the top nonfiction writing in the English language. He holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his PhD in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. His many film credits include Light at the Edge of the World, an eight-hour documentary series written and produced for the National Geographic Society. Dr. Davis, one of twenty honorary members of The Explorers Club, is the recipient of twelve honorary degrees, as well as the 2009 Gold Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the 2011 Explorers Medal, the 2012 David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration, the 2015 Centennial Medal of Harvard University, the 2017 Roy Chapman Andrews Society Distinguished Explorer Award, the 2017 Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration, and the 2018 Mungo Park Medal from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. In 2016, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2018, he became an honorary citizen of Colombia. His latest book is Magdalena: River of Dreams.