National Geographic Announces 2010 Emerging Explorers!

National Geographic's Emerging Explorers program annually recognizes outstanding men and women who are making significant contributions to their chosen field while still early in their careers. These explorers come from a wide variety of fields, including anthropology, archeology, mountaineering, technology, and more. Today, the organization announced the 2010 recipients of the awards, with another amazing group of visionary adventurers getting the nod.

All told, there are fourteen recipients of the Emerging Explorer status for this year. They come from diverse backgrounds and areas of studying, including an environmental scientist, mobile technology innovator, a paleontologist, an electrical engineer and more. Each of them is awarded $10,000 to assist in continuing their work, which includes important research in their area of speciality.

Amongst this years Emerging Explorers are Aparajita Datta, a wildlife biologist in India who is working to preserve tropical rainforests in the Arunachal Pradesh region. She is joined in the 2010 class by Mongolian paleontologist Bolortsetseg Minjin, who not only digs up the bones of dinosaurs, but works diligently to attract young Mongolian students to her passion. Musician and activist Feliciano dos Santos uses his music to promote sanitation and hygiene in remote areas of Mozambique, while conservationist and wildlife researcher Emma Stokes works with the government in the Congo to preserve an area of the contry inhabited by 125,000 lowland gorillas.

One name you're likely to recognize on the list is that of Albert Yu-Min Lin, who has not only been named an Emerging Explorer, but was also one of NG's Adventurers of the Year as well. You may recall that Albert is the explorer who has been looking fo the tomb of Genghis Khan, and he gets a nod here for his innovative use of technology which allows him to search without ever digging up the ground. To say Albert is having a good year is probably an understatement huh?

Congratulation to the 2010 class of Emerging Explorers. They all seem very deserving of the honor. To read more about these young men and women, and their research, click here.