Tierney Thys (born 1966) is an American
marine biologist
Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others th ...
, science educator, and
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
explorer.
In 1988 she earned a degree in biology from
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
, and in 1998 she earned a doctorate in biomechanics.
She was formerly the director of research at the
Sea Studios Foundation.
She was also the science editor for ''The Shape of Life'' and director for ''Strange Days on Planet Earth''.
She has also written, narrated and produced short films.
Since 2000 she and her colleagues have been studying the giant
ocean sunfish
The ocean sunfish or common mola (''Mola mola'') is one of the largest bony fish in the world. It was misidentified as the heaviest bony fish, which was actually a different species, ''Mola alexandrini''. Adults typically weigh between . The spe ...
(mola).
In 2004 she was named a National Geographic "Emerging Explorer".
She has since joined National Geographic expeditions and developed a National Geographic children's television conservation series.
She has given two
TED
TED may refer to:
Economics and finance
* TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar
Education
* ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association
** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey
** Transvaal Education Depa ...
talks, "Swim with the giant sunfish", and "The secret life of plankton".
As of 2015 she was producing an online series for TEDed titled ''Stories from the Sea''.
A chapter of ''Earth Heroes: Champions of the Ocean'', by Fran Hodgkins, is about her, and she is briefly profiled in ''Girls Research!: Amazing Tales of Female Scientists''.
''Science Methods and Process Skills: Meet Tierney Thys, National Geographic Emerging Explorer'', by Kathy Cabe Trundle, was published by National Geographic School Publishing in 2011.
She is a certified pilot and diver.
References
External links
Meet Tierney Thys
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thys, Tierney
1966 births
American marine biologists
Living people