Ellen Cuylaerts
Together in Exploration, Welcome to GLEX
On July 6 - 10, the 2021 Global Exploration Summit (GLEX), hosted by The Explorers Club, featured the slate of programming highlighting the world’s leading visionaries, explorers, and scientists. The second annual summit featured more than 20 panels that dove into recent advancements in land, sea, and space exploration. ICYMI, you can stream GLOBAL EXPLORER’S CLUB SUMMIT now on discovery+.
(Updated 8/4/21)
GLEX took place in Portugal, and virtually, Tuesday, July 6th through July 10th. The second annual summit, with the support of Turismo de Portugal and sponsored by VisitAzores, brought together the world’s leading explorers to share accounts of their expeditions and the scientific research that they are conducting as they explore land, sea, and space. In GLOBAL EXPLORER’S CLUB SUMMIT, relive the moments with top explorers on discovery+.
Ellen Cuylaerts
The full panel schedule, available here: https://www.glexsummit.com/program-2021, included leading visionaries, explorers, and scientists as they discuss recent advancements in their respective fields.
- James Cameron, Academy Award-winning film director and deep-ocean pioneer
- Dr. Sylvia Earle, legendary oceanographer, explorer, author and president of Mission Blue, an organization that inspires action to explore and protect the ocean
- David Blaine, American illusionist, endurance artist, and extreme performer
- Fabien Cousteau, aquanaut, Ocean explorer, environmentalist and visionary behind PROTEUS™, the world’s most advanced underwater scientific research station and habitat to address humanity’s most critical concerns
- Brian Cox, an English physicist and former musician who serves as professor of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. He is also well-known for his widely popular BBC miniseries on the cosmos, titled “Wonders of the Universe”
- Craig Foster, South African documentary filmmaker and naturalist known for Academy Award-winning documentary film, “My Octopus Teacher”
- Prince Albert II, Monaco's head of state and leader in global ocean conservation
- Dr. Alan Stern, a planetary scientist, space program executive, aerospace consultant, and author who previously led NASA's New Horizons mission that successfully explored the Pluto system
- Anousheh Ansari, Iranian-born American businesswoman who was the first female private space traveler, the first person of Iranian descent, and the first Muslim woman to go into space
- A closing message from UN Secretary-General António Guterres; and many more.
GLEX Summit held its inaugural event in July 2019 in Lisbon, with hundreds of explorers showcasing their latest discoveries and research and plans for future expeditions. The first summit included the world’s greatest explorers and scientists and brought together leading explorers to commemorate Magellan’s 500th Circumnavigation Anniversary.
Portugal was selected as the home for the recurring summit timed to the 500th anniversary of the first scientific human expedition, the Magellan and Elcano circumnavigation. The event acknowledges the history of global exploration and the impact that that exploration has had on indigenous cultures and the environment. Today, as borders are erased and the world confronts challenges beyond boundaries like climate change, GLEX Summit looks at the intersection of exploration and science to help further our understanding of life and to help educate people across the globe about our common heritage.
GLEX Summit participants are also expected once again to sign onto the Lisbon Declaration: a promise among leaders in exploration, science, and research to promote a worldwide effort in environmental preservation – particularly the planet’s most pristine habitats, and to inspire people to reconnect with nature.
