Over the past 40 years Dr. Alan Friedlander has spent > 12,000 hours underwater—from coral reefs to the poles and to depths of thousands of meters. Alan is Senior Marine Scientist for the National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas program, and a researcher at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawai‘i. He leads research efforts to help understand and conserve iconic, special places in the ocean and is an expert in marine ecology, fisheries, and conservation. His work on marine protected areas ranges from small locally community-managed areas to some of the largest protected areas on the planet. Over the past decade, Alan has led 40+ expeditions to some of the last wild places in the ocean, which has resulted in the creation of 27 large marine protected areas encompassing > 6.6 million square kilometers.
Alan started his career in the early 1980s in the Kingdom of Tonga working on sustainable small-scale fisheries. Following this, he obtained an MS in Oceanography from Old Dominion University working on coastal fisheries in Puerto Rico. He then worked for the territorial fisheries agency and the National Park Service in the US Virgin Islands where he conducted research on coral reefs throughout the Caribbean. Alan received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawai‘i and was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Associate. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Explorers Club.
