NATALIA RYBCZYNSKI

Canadian Museum of Nature paleobiologist who found evidence that camels once lived in the High Arctic; discovered Puijila darwini, a prehistoric relative of the seal.

In 1994, when I was still an undergrad, paleobiologist Richard Harington invited me to go on an expedition to the High Arctic, and that truly changed everything for me. I’ve also worked in Bolivia, Egypt and the badlands of Alberta, but those places just reinforced in my mind the importance of the Arctic. Fieldwork there is all about dealing with the unexpected: the animals that wander into camp, the gear that blows away, the journal that gets lost. Psychologically it can be very hard, but it gets into your blood.