Natalie Schmitt

Natalie Schmitt is an empathetic ecologist, conservation geneticist, and documentary presenter, deeply passionate about protecting biodiversity using hard science, public education, and community empowerment. Studying elusive, endangered species, like snow leopard and Antarctic whales, she has empowered grass-roots conservation and enabled policy education and management improvement at various scales, including that of the International Whaling Commission. Natalie is developing a low-cost, portable, easy-to-use paper-based DNA technology for wildlife detection that everyday people can use. She leads an extremely skilled, synergic team of geneticists, conservationists, communicators, business partners, and institutions to develop this technology. WildTechDNA will categorically revolutionize the way customs, law enforcement, field monitoring practices, citizen science, and locally-based conservation are conducted around the world.