KATHLEEN CONLAN

Marine biologist at Ottawa’s Canadian Museum of Nature; has scuba dived on more than 20 field expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic.

I would have to say John Oliver, research professor at California’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, has inspired me the most. Shortly after we met, he invited me to go to Antarctica with him, and that trip is what really got me into this area of research. I later got into scuba diving, which was challenging because I had actually burst both my eardrums as a child — something my father had failed to mention to me my entire life!