Tierney Thys, PhD.
Consultant, Filmmaker, and Public Speaker in Carmel Valley, California
Dr. Thys is ardent ocean scientist, conservationist, science media producer, National Geographic Explorer, Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences and TED All-star speaker.
Dr. Thys serves as a Nat Geo expert on research and tourist expeditions worldwide to Alaska, Antarctica, Baja, Bali, Belize, Caribbean, Galapagos, South Africa and Around the World by Private Jet Expeditions. She is also Founder of the Adopt a Sunfish Project (www.oceansunfish.org) dedicated to researching and conserving ocean sunfishes--a group of fishes she has been studying globally since 2000. She was lead editor on The Ocean Sunfishes: Evolution, Biology and Conservation, due out in Dec 2020.
After receiving a PhD studying fish biomechanics at Duke University, Tierney was Director of Research at Sea Studios Foundation and created films and outreach products for NatGeoTV including The Shape of Life series (shapeoflife.org) and Strange Days on Planet Earth (http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/) winner of Best Series Wildscreen Festival in Bristol, England. She was executive producer and writer for an award-winning online film series for TEDed called Stories from the Sea. The first episode, Secret Life of Plankton, won Best Short film at the Blue Ocean Film Festival and Wildscreen in 2012.
Her current research projects include exploring the effects of nature imagery and sounds on cognitive wellbeing with neuroeconomist Dr. Nik Sawe, Stanford University. Using neuroimaging we are exploring how nature imagery influences environmental decision-making.Dr. Thys also works with Dr. Nalini Nadkarni to incorporate nature imagery into prisons. This work has received considerable media attention-- recognized by Time Magazine as one of the top inventions of 2014.
Dr. Thys believes we need to tap all our creative talents to conserve our aquatic and terrestrial resources. She consults and works with photographers, dancers, writers, filmmakers and other artists to infuse quality science and conservation messaging into their work. She is also the daily underwater explorer in NatGeo's Animal Jam—an online kids game with more than 160 million players in 120 countries. Dr. Thys serves on the science adivisory board for Think Beyond Plastic and the Animal Sentience journal and is a STEM speaker for the US Embassy.