Michael Aw

Michael Aw

Founder of Ocean Geographic, Asian Geographic, Deep Hope

    Michael AW is the founder of Asian Geographic (1998), Ocean Geographic (2007), as well as OceanNEnvironment Ltd (1998), a non-profit organization registered with Environment Australia. He is currently the CEO and Publisher of Ocean Geographic. He also serves as the Executive Director of Deep Hope Inc., a 501C organisation founded with Dr Sylvia Earle to build submersibles to explore deep-sea habitats. Michael AW was awarded the NOGI AWARD for Arts and inducted into the fellowship of the American Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences. He is a Fellow of the Explorer Club and has led four flag expeditions to the Antarctic and the Arctic. Before becoming an ocean advocate, explorer and one of our world’s most published underwater photographers, Michael worked in mainstream advertising agencies for 15 years. In February of 2023, Michael successfully organised a multi-national team of experts of diverse disciplines, and gender, aged 12 to 88 from 20 nations for a benchmark climate expedition to document the state of the Antarctic (ACE2023) and created eight resolutions for a transformative change for a net-zero planet by 2035. The pictures, music documentaries and resolutions from the expedition premiered in June 2023 at the Melting Ice, Sinking Cities exhibition at the CDL Green Gallery, Botanical Garden, Singapore. Since 1993, MICHAEL has been credited as the principal author and photographer of 39 books about the ocean. His accolades include winning more than 68 international photographic awards and being named one of the world’s most influential nature photographers by Outdoor Photographer. Michael AW’s essays and pictures have been published in BBC Wildlife, GEO, National Geographic, The Smithsonian, Nature, Ocean Geographic, Asian Geographic, Nature Focus, The Times, and Discovery to name a few.

    9:50 am - 10:20 am

    Session 1 by Michael Aw – Signals From Our Ocean: From Surface to Full Ocean Depth, From Arctic to Antarctic

    Summary to be updated soon.

    3:15 pm - 4:00 pm

    Panel Discussion – Future of Coral Reefs in Time of Climate Change: What will become of the reefs we know in 2050?

    Panelists include Prof. Peter Harrison, Michael Aw, Dr. Toh Tai Chong, and Sam Shu Qin. Moderated by Kong Man Jing.

    1:10 pm - 1:30 pm

    Ocean Geographic PICOTY