AMplify - Conversations at the Australian Museum

The first Trailblazers Talk taking place at the Australian Museum is a conversation between Australian Geographic's founding editor, Howard Whelan, and renowned Aussie explorer and mountaineer, Greg Mortimor.

The first Trailblazers Talk taking place at the Australian Museum is a conversation between Australian Geographic's founding editor, Howard Whelan, and renowned Aussie explorer and mountaineer, Greg Mortimor.

Greg Mortimor was the first Australian to reach the summits of Mount Everest, K2, Annapurna II and Chongtar in the Himalaya – all without supplementary oxygen. Greg also enables adventurous tourists to explore Antarctica and pioneered ship-based adventures.

In this hour-long intimate and inspiring discussion, Greg recounts reaching the summit and the qualities of modern-day explorers.

"An Evening on Everest" was the first of 21 Trailblazers Talks taking place at the Australian Museum in Sydney in 2016, held weekly in parallel with the museum's Trailblazers exhibition celebrating Australia's 50 greatest explorers.

Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay talks to Dr Jodi Rowley, Amphibian Biologist in Herpetology, whose research reveals amphibian diversity and her a passion for communicating biodiversity conservation.

Curiosity about the natural world led Chris into a museum job at age 12, kicking off a lifetime of research. In this episode, Kim chats with Chris about the decline of Christmas beetles, studying leeches in an igloo on Lord Howe Island, and the 6.5 million insect species held in the AM collection.

Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay talks to Dr Chris Reid about his work in Entomology and field trips to Papua New Guinea .

Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay talks to Dr Rebecca Johnson, Director of the Australian Museum Research Centre (AMRI) about her motivations to become a wildlife geneticist.

Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay talks to Dr Rebecca Johnson, Director of the Australian Museum Research Centre (AMRI) about her motivations to become a wildlife geneticist.

"I look at the DNA of pretty much any species of animal, wildlife in our world here at the Australian Museum basically means all animals but not typically plants, and that also excludes humans... There's so many reasons why you'd want to know about animal DNA..."

Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay talks to Dr Jodi Rowley, amphibian biologist in Herpetology, whose research reveals amphibian diversity and her a passion for communicating biodiversity conservation.

“Here at AMRI, I’m so passionate about the work we do, of our three most senior scientists, two of them are women, we are very fortunate here to have that kind of leadership, that kind of expertise”

Dr Rebecca Johnson

Director, Australian Museum Research Institute, Science and Learning