Dr. Angel Yanagihara received a PhD in molecular cellular and neurobiology and currently holds two faculty positions at the University of Hawaii.
She teaches first-year medical school students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine while concurrently serving as the Director and Principal Investigator at the Pacific Cnidarian Research Laboratory. A multi-lingual patent holder and diver, her research is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense where she does field work around the world – including at both poles.
As an Explorers Club Fellow, she led the POLEs Expedition that assessed the impact of glacial runoff, temperature fluctuations, and salinity changes on marine biodiversity at the North and South Poles. POLEs (Plankton Observations of Lifecycles and Ecobiomes) represents an essential leap forward in understanding these dynamic biomes, focusing on the foundational elements of the marine food web.
She spent her formative years in Anchorage, Alaska where she first caught the cold-water swimming bug.
Her father, a special forces soldier, prepared her to survive some extremely harrowing brushes with death throughout her life. The globally acclaimed jellyfish toxins expert and researcher talks her work with box jellyfish and a few of those unexpected life-threatening adventures with Steven Munatones below:
© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“
A World Open Water Swimming Federation project.