Diva Amon is a Trinidadian deep-sea biologist who studies the weird and wonderful animals living in the deep ocean and how our actions are impacting them. She is currently undertaking a Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellowship at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. Diva has participated in deep-sea expeditions around the world and has also done a considerable amount of science communication and public engagement. Additionally, Diva is a founder and director of the non-profit NGO, SpeSeas, dedicated to marine science, education and advocacy in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.

Alan Leonardi is the Director of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, the only federal program dedicated to systematic telepresence-enabled exploration of the world ocean. A meteorologist and oceanographer, Leonardi is responsible for providing direction to NOAA and the U.S. Department of Commerce on ocean exploration, research, and technology development.

Antonella Wilby is a PhD student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at the Contextual Robotics Institute, UC San Diego, and a National Geographic Explorer. She develops autonomous robots to explore extreme environments, in particular ocean environments, with the goal of better understanding and protecting our blue planet.

Elizabeth Tyson is a Fellow with National Geographic Society in their Citizen Explorer Labs helping to refine strategic programming around participatory scientific research and innovation. Prior to National Geographic, Tyson was a Program Associate in the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and conducted original research and hosted strategic workshops to support the citizen science ecosystem within the U.S. Government and internationally.

Allan Adams leads the Future Ocean Lab at MIT, where his team develops low-cost, low-power tools for underwater exploration, and high-end custom cameras to document the world’s changing oceans. Trained as a theoretical physicist, Allan joined the faculty of the MIT Physics Department in 2008 only to discover that his heart lay in the ocean, so he traded his office for a lab and his seminar room for Mexican cenotes and the deep-sea coral reefs.  Allan is currently PI of the Future Ocean Lab at MIT, a Visiting Investigator at WHOI, a Research Scientist in MIT’s CMS/W, and deeply happy.