A Harvard-trained insect scientist and self-taught photographer, Moffett is one of only a handful of people to earn a PhD under the world's most famous ecologist, E. O. Wilson. For his doctorate, Moffett spent 29 months in the field, collecting specimens and photographing ants in 14 countries. While still on expedition an editor from National Geographic saw his images and flew to India to convince him to shoot for the magazine. 28 National Geographic articles later Moffett has earned some of photojournalism's highest honors, including Best Picture and Best Story in the Picture of the Year awards.

Using the unique perspectives he gained studying insects below sea level and over 200 feet above the forest floor, Moffett wrote The High Frontier (Harvard University Press) comparing terrestrial, marine, and microbial ecosystems and challenging prevailing trends in the field of ecology.

In 2006 Moffett received the Lowell Thomas Medal—the highest honor in the field of exploration—from the Explorers Club in New York, following luminaries such as Carl Sagan, Sir Edmund Hillary and Jean Cousteau. While not on expedition, Moffett divides his time between two staff positions at the University of California at Berkley and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., for whom he will curate an exhibit in 2009 based entirely on his personal research and photography.

Moffett is a modern day explorer with more than a little luck on his side. He has accidentally sat on the world's deadliest snake, battled drug lords with dart guns, eaten grubs, scorpions and spiders, and ascended a tree to escape bull elephants. To the stage he brings his wealth of experience, passion, and quirky humor for an unforgettable look inside our natural world and its complex systems.

Adventures in Fragile Lands
Learning to be a 21st Century Explorer
Mark describes how risk-taking, trust, and teamwork contribute to his success. Working with poisonous subjects, including the world's most deadly organism—a rarely seen frog in a remote valley in Colombia (one touch can kill)—the term risk-taking holds more sway than usual. In this presentation he seeks to inspire the next generation of tropical explorers with the insights he has gained about the beauty, architecture, and conservation of these towering arboreal communities.

The High Frontier
Exploring the Forest Canopy
From Malaysia, to the Amazon, to the Congo, Mark has worked in the crowns of the world's tallest trees where most of the world's biodiversity lies, pursuing orangutans and canopy bears or finding rare orchids and insects—work that he details in The High Frontier: Exploring the Tropical Rainforest Canopy (Harvard Press), which the Boston Globe calls as "a stunning mix of adventure photography and hard scientific inquiry that ranks with the best work of Jacques Cousteau."

Insect Tales
High Drama in Small Places
Is conservation only about the big things, such as lions, tigers, and bears? Oh my…certainly not! Mark's goal is to inspire his audiences to care about the obscure creatures, whether it be a romantically-inclined Sri Lankan spider or dancing Brazilian frogs; 100-foot-wide swarms of bloodthirsty army ants of Ghana or the multicolored 'Doctor Seuss' flies of New Guinea. No one else knows these stories firsthand, or can convey them with Mark's enthusiasm.