Robert “Rio” Hahn is an explorer, photographer, filmmaker, painter, author, and speaker on altered states of consciousness. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow, two-term international Director, and three-term San Diego Chapter Chair of The Explorers Club. The recipient of five Explorers Club Flags, he is a licensed sea captain, open water diver, founding member of the International Society for Ethnopharmacology, and holds the title of High Chief of Western Samoa. He received a B.A. from the U. of Pennsylvania in the Annenberg Graduate School of Communications, including an apprenticeship-in-residence to the renowned American photographer Minor White, Chair of the Dept. of Photography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His upcoming book will present to the public White’s exercises for seeing in a heightened state of awareness. He is a co-founder, Fellow, Director, and past president of the Institute of Ecotechnics, whose research led to the Biosphere 2 Project, which he co-initiated. He participated in the design and construction of the Research Vessel Heraclitus for which he was the first licensed captain. He was Scientific Chief and overall manager for the Institute’s ethnopharmacological Amazon Expedition, following which he served as overall manager and Expedition Chief for the Around-the-Tropic World circumnavigation expedition of the Heraclitus, during which he co-produced and co-directed Journeys To Other Worlds, a series of cultural documentary films from the expedition.
