Robert Boyd

Robert Boyd is a 2025 Pathfinder Prize finalist and science communicator for “Scorched Earth: Australia’s Wildlife and the Devastation of Bushfires.”

A smiling man wearing a red shirt and glasses
Meet the Expeditioner

You could blame it on the Magic School Bus. Before the BBC ever showed him the African savanna and before David Attenborough and his serenading voice took him on a journey through the world’s rainforests, Magic School Bus infected science communicator Robert Boyd with the idea that science and media were inherently integrated. It’s for this reason that he chose to become a science communicator. He holds a BA from William and Mary and an MFA from American University.

Robert’s filmmaking practice centers around underwater and microscopic filmmaking. His specific expertise allows this expedition to consider the impact of bushfires on forms of wildlife that are often overlooked — the small, the hidden, and that which is invisible to the naked eye.

Robert’s journey has been marked by collaborations with various governmental and private institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Department of the Interior, the Ocean Exploration Trust, the Investigative Reporting Workshop and PBS Frontline, WGBH, National Geographic, American University, and the Alabama Rivers Alliance.